Here is the big secret. Ready for it?

Go out of town.

Seriously. I am flying to Phoenix early Friday morning. I am losing a regular working day this week (Friday). I have a lot of irons in the fire which means I have a lot to get done before I leave. So, this means I just bust ass to get everything done by the end of Thursday.

Going out of town raises my necessity level and, in some weird, unconscious way, drives me to actually be more efficient. Because I HAVE to.

Two other things that work for me:

• Use a todo list. I use Remember The Milk integrated with Gmail. I’d prefer to have a Google way of doing it, but they’re taking their sweet time.
• Stop monitoring Twitter and FriendFeed. Sure, I’ve checked up on them a few times this week, but both of those services are HUGE suckers of mental energy. Turn ‘em off to get work done. Both are there when you get back.

I should go out of town more often.