Myself and my Fiance have developed an amusing saying. When we're doing lots of things in a day, we'll divide the day into parts, each with its own focus. For instance, Saturday Part 1 might be for brunch, Ghost Adventures and reading books in the sunshine with our doggy. Part 2 might be errands, laundry, and various things we need to do. After a brief nap to break up the parts of course.

Lately, I've been thinking that breaking my work days into parts as well. As an Engineering Manager, sometimes I can have 10-15 tasks I need to do in a day. If I focused on that large number, after context switching 10 times between tasks I'll feel the toll, and start to feel the fatigue of the day. Instead, I can group those tasks in parts, say 10 tasks in Part 1 focused on projects and features, and then Part 2 after lunch working through the remaining 5 tasks focused on people management.

Working this way keeps me focused, on task, and creates more space to focus on one subject. Say I'm working on that people-focused Part 2 and I complete what I wanted to do. I now have the space carved out to focus on other people related wins. Further, I'm already in the right mindset, so its not such a big hassle to context switch. Win.

In a world where our attention span is constantly under threat, working in Parts per day is one my tools to combat it. I don't like jumping around between tasks, or trying to multitask. I like focusing everything I have on one outcome, and having the space to do it without feeling pressured. So Parts work for me like super-sized, meta-pomodoros.

And. At the end of day. When you can look back and feel like you've made decent sized contributions to some focuses that matter, you'll feel awesome. Try it. You might like it.