Front-load Everything

I'm a big fan of front-loading.

I plan my weeks religiously. It's part of the reason I'm able to get so much done. Every Sunday or Monday, I take stock of whether I was able to complete all the tasks I needed from the prior week, then compile a list of things I need to do for the upcoming week. I've been doing some form of this for nearly five years now.

This week has been particularly burdensome, with many small tasks interspersed with larger items that I need to complete before I finally leave Amazon for good. Usually, I'm not a fan of piling too many things on my plate, but there are 24 items on my to-do list this week. A typical week for me has fewer than 10 items in total.

My favorite way to get stuff done is by front-loading the work, i.e., doing as much as possible at the start of the week. On Monday, I was able to knock off 8 items from the list. Seven of those 8 items were done before lunchtime.

My rule is that if I pick up an item, I don't put it back down or start another one u…