Remember that the three “mental energy suckers” are choice, noise, and change. Choice means making decisions, noise is any distraction, and change is any change during your day - doing a different task or even talking to a different person. By being cognizant of what these mental energy suckers are, you can find ways to minimize them and their impact.
Every time you change your mindset, your brain loses energy. So if you have a ten or fifteen minute break in between meetings, you’re probably better off just relaxing or playing a game, rather than trying to use that time to get work done. If, for example, you use the break to do office work, the change in mindset will sap your energy, and you’ll end up losing far more time than the fifteen minutes that you could have allowed yourself to relax. The main point is to avoid switching to a completely different type of task, then switching back; by doing something similar to what you were doing before, or by simply relaxing, you avoid the mental change that drains your mental energy.
“To Do” lists should never be a motivator. If it is unlikely that you will finish everything on the list, you are creating subconscious mental noise that will suck your mental energy. The best solution is to cut things out of your “to do” list so that you can be reasonably certain that you will be able to finish everything by the end of the day. Consider writing a wish list alongside your “to do” list; once you finish the mandatory tasks, no one is stopping you from tackling the projects on your wish list… but because it’s no longer mandatory, the distracting mental noise will get much lower.
A quiet brain is a productive brain; and a quiet brain requires a clean desk and an uncluttered office. Having sticky notes everywhere, or things not directly related to the task at hand, only serves to add noise to your mind. As simple as it sounds, getting rid of the clutter is a real prerequisite for getting things done.
