I have a few strategies aimed towards reigning in my drifting focus.
> I focus best in 2.5-3 hour blocks. Each day I lock in 2 of these, each focusing on an important task/project. I learned of this with an analogy from my Grandfather - if you have a jar and fill it with sand, nothing else fits in. If you fill a jar with pebbles, all the sand fills in the gaps. The strategy in having these two blocks of focus is that all the sand/smaller tasks fill in the gaps.
> Each week maintain a "top of mind" list containing all the things that are on the top of your mind
> Have a "possibilities" list - the things you want to do, but may not need to right now.
Regarding this constant flow of information:
> I prune RSS feeds by looking at the most active and least needed
> I focus best in 2.5-3 hour blocks. Each day I lock in 2 of these, each focusing on an important task/project. I learned of this with an analogy from my Grandfather - if you have a jar and fill it with sand, nothing else fits in. If you fill a jar with pebbles, all the sand fills in the gaps. The strategy in having these two blocks of focus is that all the sand/smaller tasks fill in the gaps.
> Each week maintain a "top of mind" list containing all the things that are on the top of your mind
> Have a "possibilities" list - the things you want to do, but may not need to right now.
Regarding this constant flow of information:
> I prune RSS feeds by looking at the most active and least needed
> I check RSS feeds before and after work