The Busy Monday

Nora had twenty-three unread emails waiting when she opened her laptop on Monday morning. Before she could answer the first one, a colleague asked about a ten o'clock meeting. Her phone rang as she was looking for the meeting notes. It was only nine fifteen, and she already felt behind.

Nora made a fresh cup of tea and looked at her deadlines. Her manager needed a report before lunch, two clients were waiting for answers, and three other calls could wait until the afternoon. If she answered every new message immediately, the report would never get finished.

She took a sheet of paper and divided it into three sections: urgent, important and later. The client emails went at the top. The report was the largest task, so she planned to work on it without interruptions for one hour. Everything else could wait.

She sent the two short replies, closed her chat notifications and opened the report. After twenty minutes, she wanted to check her inbox again. Instead, she wrote the thought on her list and kept working. When a colleague came to her desk, she explained that she could help after the meeting.

By lunchtime, the report was ready. Nora still had several messages to answer, but now she knew what each one needed. The morning hadn't become less busy. She had simply stopped allowing every notification to decide what she did next.