Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, Third Edition

Chapter 3

Trick Yourself into Getting Done

Just as Mom used to grind up that bitter pill in a bowl of ice cream, you can make working on tough tasks easier to swallow. Checking an item off your to-do list — and the sense of satisfaction and completion that comes with that simple action — is one of the best things that happens during your workday. But there are roadblocks, both environmental and just plain mental, on the way to “done.”

Part of the reason you leave the office at night feeling so far behind on work comes from the nature of the modern workplace. Rife with distractions and interruptions, many offices couldn’t be less conducive to productivity. Noisy disruptions and drop-by co-workers aside, the reality of information work is that there’s always another email to open, another website to visit, another message that makes your smartphone vibrate off the desk. At any moment you have a dozen things you could work on, and even that choice is a source of distraction and paralysis. It’s easy to spend the day constantly switching gears and reevaluating what’s the biggest fire to put out next rather than making progress on important work.

Even when you’re alone, with email and phone turned off, procrastination rears its ugly head. Starting in on a tough project feels like an impossible feat; suddenly, rather than spending the afternoon working on the big presentation, you’re ripping your CD collection into iTunes. In a culture that says, “You can do anything you want!” your ...