Productivity is not about doing more things – it is about doing the right things at the right times. Spend 10 minutes to plan your day and save hours in wasted effort and unnecessary task-switching. Next time your brain is swimming with all the wonderful possibilities of things you could do, or drowning in dread of all the things you have to do, you are going to thank me.

People often believe that strong will and good intentions will drive them through their to-do lists. Instead, what turns intention into action is planning and follow-through. That, and banning the concept of multi-tasking from your mind forever.