the tiny tasks til ten method: how to build momentum in your day & actually get shit done
my life-saving method for ADHDers who have trouble starting their work day without squirreling all over town
Opening your laptop when you have a 700 things on your to do list, 84 emails to answer, 16 browser tabs open, and 14 unread texts to respond to is overwhelming as all hell!
Add that to the common ADHD-er feeling of “I must be forgetting something” and combine it with the growls from your stomach because you skipped breakfast due to a drastic case of decision fatigue not allowing you to decide what to eat…
And that is a recipe for disaster when it comes to harnessing your productivity!
SO — allow me to introduce you the most life-saving method for reducing your “squirreling” when sitting down to start your work day.
Tiny Tasks Til Ten 🫡
I developed this method a few years ago and have been using it DAILY ever since.
It’s simple:
You do all of your “tiny tasks” (things that take less than 10 minutes each) until 10 o’clock in the morning.
When 10 o’clock hits, you’re done, even if you didn’t get everything done.
The point is to allow yourself to get into work mode in an easy way, while also crossing off some of the smaller tasks on your to-do list that might be weighing on you and getting in the way of you being able to dedicate enough mental energy to finish the bigger, more “important” tasks.
(You’ll probably find that some of those “tiny tasks” take wayyyy less time than you realized, too.)
I started this because I was finding it difficult to jump straight into my work day (doing big, important tasks like writing a 30-page website copy draft, bc YIKES brain power required!) so I knew I needed to ease in and build that momentum.
At the time, I was driving my son to pre-school, and was returning home between 9am and 9:30am each day, so 10 o’clock felt like the perfect “start” time.
My tiny tasks are usually things like…
Responding to an email I’ve been avoiding
Paying a bill
Proofreading something
Deleting my mountain of screenshots from my desktop
Cleaning my office
Responding to students on Slack
Answering DMs
Putting the dishes away
& this method has yet to fail me in YEARS!
Now, it’s become a ritual I look forward to: I know I’ll be spending each morning working on my “tiny tasks” so I know I’m reasonably able to accomplish a ton that previously would have been crowding my brain all day.
When you focus on accomplishing tiny little things first thing in the morning, you’re significantly less overwhelmed AND you start to feel proud of yourself for those micro-achievements, making it easier to get into your actual work for the day.
Sitting down to start something taxing = way too hard for a squirrel brain.
Sitting down to take care of little tiny things and “clean the slate” before your work day’s “official” start = perfect way to ease into your day, build momentum, and confidently accomplish more than you ever have before.
Let me know in the comments which tiny tasks you’re gonna work on this week!
Happy squirreling!
—Mother Squirrel
