Halfway through a work day, nothing you did moved you closer to a Big Goal.

Shuffling emails around, dealing with administration, maybe getting distracted looking at some new SaaS that just might be useful … But it’s draining.

I call these activities Time Vampires. Time Vampires demand attention, and give you little dopamine hits. After being sucked into trivia, the focus and creativity needed to make progress on the Big Goal starts to die.

Here’s your silver bullet to make real progress:

Get clear on what the Big Goal is. Write it down.

Break it into 3-hour chunks.

NEVER start a day with Time Vampires. Start the day working on a chunk and put in 3+ hours.

Work on it without interruption – no notifications, no checking email (I use the Defensive Line, if you want a video on it let me know).

Time Vampires can only be done when you are spent and no longer being productive on the Big Thing. And if you don’t finish them, so what.

You don’t need to finish every Time Vampire task. Most of them just go away if ignored.

Here’s the harsh reality: your Big Goal will also go away if it’s ignored.

Which do you choose?