January 19th 2021

Today at work I really struggled to stay focused on one task at a time without getting distracted by another. A colleague once described be as a marketing magpie, because I see something shiny and get super invested in that until the next shiny thing comes along. And aint that the truth.

I’ll be doing one thing, and then I’ll get an email or a message about a different thing, and suddenly that will grab my attention and the previous thing I was doing gets forgotten about for a bit.

Also: rabbits.

I’ll be doing one thing, and then I’ll look for an email or test something on the website, and I’ll discover something I don’t like — something completely unrelated — and then follow that rabbit hole for a little while.

Magpies and rabbits.

It’s not good. It’s not productive. But also, I can’t say no. So if someone asks me to do something I’ll never be like “no sorry I’m too busy”, I just replace my current work with the new work, and prioritise that until something shinier comes along.

It’s an issue. I need to be more rigid and structured in my approach to tasks, and there are definitely apps for that. I just know myself well enough to know that I will start to use the app until something shinier comes along and distracts me from it.

Until tomorrow, rabbits and magpies.

Jacn