How many times has this happened to you? You get to your desk in the morning to start work, but you’re immediately pulled in 100 different directions. You frantically add and check off items from a running to-do list—either physical or mental—and when five o’clock rolls around, you don’t feel like you accomplished anything. Looking back, you spent a lot of time procrastinating—surfing social media or watching YouTube videos. Why? How does it feel like nothing got accomplished, but you had plenty of time to waste? One of the main reasons for this is that you’re not crafting your to-do list with intention. You’re allowing it to pile up and then engaging in avoidant behavior in response to the ever-growing list. To break this habit, what makes it to your to-do list needs to pass through a much more rigorous filter. Can this be delegated? Can this be designed differently? Am I really the best person for this task? Does this task even matter in the long run? If you’re more focused on your running to-do list, the more focused you’ll be on the tasks that end up there. You’ll be more motivated to be productive rather than retreating down a YouTube rabbit hole to avoid work you shouldn’t be doing anyway.