Focus & Productivity Glossary

Popular but oversimplified claim that mastery requires 10,000 hours of practice.

Aim for 85% effort, not 100%.

Retrieving information from memory instead of re-reading it.

Acting against one's better judgment.

Yearly reflection on goals, progress, and direction.

Small habits that compound into remarkable results.

Lingering cognitive load left over after switching tasks.

Audio illusion of a tone created by two slightly different frequencies in each ear.

A state of low stimulation that triggers mind-wandering.

Deeper, rumbling noise with energy concentrated at low frequencies.

Chronic workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed.

Your individual circadian preference for sleep and peak performance.

A roughly 24-hour cycle of biological processes.

Small daily improvements compounding over time.

Showing up across many days, even at lower intensity.

The cost of moving your attention from one task to another.

The ability to generate novel and useful ideas.

Deteriorating quality of decisions after many in a row.

Removing decisions from your day to preserve mental energy.

Rest deep enough to restore the cognitive systems used in work.

Cognitively demanding work performed in a distraction-free state.

Brain regions active when not focused on the outside world.

Highly focused, goal-oriented practice with immediate feedback.

Intentional, structured rest as a productivity practice.

Relaxed mode of thought that lets the brain make distant connections.

Each additional hour produces less than the last.

Neurotransmitter that drives motivation and reward-seeking.

Periods of avoiding high-stimulation rewards.

Do your hardest task first thing in the morning.

A 2x2 grid for sorting tasks by urgency and importance.

Treating energy, not time, as the scarcest resource.

Shaping your physical and digital surroundings to enable habits.

Sudden insight after a period of incubation.

A wind-down sequence that protects sleep.

Learn by explaining a topic in simple language as if teaching it.

Count down 5-4-3-2-1 and start before your brain talks you out of it.

The belief that abilities are innate and unchangeable.

A psychological state of full immersion and energized focus.

Work until focus naturally fades, then take a proportional break.

Directed attention on a single task to the exclusion of others.

Music designed or selected to support sustained attention.

Direct, narrow attention on a specific task.

Anything that makes a desired behavior harder.

David Allen's task management system based on capturing everything.

The belief that abilities develop through effort.

Cue → routine → reward cycle that automates behavior.

Anchoring a new habit to an existing one.

A visual record of daily habit performance.

Pre-deciding when, where, and how you'll do a task.

Keeping your email inbox empty.

Unconscious problem-solving during breaks from a task.

Effort level within a single session.

Mixing different topics or skills within a study session.

Visual workflow management using cards moving across columns.

Lead metrics predict; lag metrics report.

Colloquial for the brain's threat-response systems.

Training attention through observation of breath or sensations.

Non-judgmental awareness of the present moment.

The smallest output that still counts as a successful day.

Extended period of isolation and focus on one goal.

Buddhist term for restless, unfocused, jumping thoughts.

A fixed sequence of activities that primes the day.

The drive to initiate and persist with an action.

Attempting to do multiple tasks simultaneously.

The smallest version of a product that delivers value.

Short daytime sleep, typically 10-30 minutes.

A guided relaxation technique that triggers sleep-like recovery while awake.

Goal-setting framework popularized by Google.

80% of results come from 20% of efforts.

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

Setting unrealistic standards and self-criticizing when not met.

Noise between white and brown — energy falls off with frequency.

Splitting sleep into multiple shorter periods across 24 hours.

25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break, repeated four times before a longer break.

Deciding what to do first when everything competes for attention.

Voluntarily delaying intended actions despite expected negative consequences.

The process of returning to baseline after exertion.

Steven Pressfield's name for the internal force opposing creative work.

Periods of restoration that rebuild cognitive and physical capacity.

A repeated sequence that signals to your brain it's time to focus.

External system for capturing and organizing notes.

Non-cognitively-demanding logistical tasks performed while distracted.

Releasing work to the world.

One canonical place where information lives.

Focusing on one task at a time until it's done.

Handle each email or item once instead of returning to it.

The process of learning a new ability.

Active brain process essential for memory consolidation and cognitive performance.

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound goals.

Reviewing material at increasing intervals to improve long-term retention.

Consecutive days of completing a target behavior.

The body's response to demands that exceed perceived resources.

Negative emotion attached to a specific task.

Grouping similar tasks together to reduce context switching.

Valuing immediate rewards more than future ones.

Assigning every hour of the day to a specific task in advance.

If a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately.

Recurring 90-120 minute cycles of physiological arousal during the day.

Easy initial work that lowers the bar to start the harder task.

A regular session to reflect on the past week and plan the next.

Sound with equal energy across all frequencies.

Self-control as a finite resource that depletes through use.

Cap on the number of tasks in progress at one time.

A guided meditation practice that induces deep relaxation.

We remember interrupted tasks better than completed ones.

A note-taking method using linked atomic notes.