04/09/2026
The Two-Task Rule
You do not have to always be working.
What you work on is more important than how many hours you work.
You can still have downtime. You can go for a walk, work out at lunch, think, breathe, and not feel guilty.
I have become much more productive since I stopped trying to do ten things a day and started focusing on two.
Not ten phone calls. Not twenty emails. Not an endless to-do list.
Just two things.
Usually, I pick one thing to work on in the morning and one thing to work on in the afternoon.
Then I put a time limit on each one.
Maybe it is 10 minutes. Maybe it is 30 minutes. Maybe it is an hour.
But I decide in advance.
Because if you do not put a limit on a task, it will usually take all day.
Sometimes I finish it.
Sometimes I do not.
It does not matter.
The goal is not to complete everything or look busy all day.
The goal is to make progress and keep moving.
What I have found is that when I only give myself two things, I stay calmer.
I stop bouncing from one distraction to another.
I stop spending the whole day reacting, checking my phone, checking email, and never really getting anything important done.
The key is that these should be two things that make your life better.
Outside of your job, what are the one or two things that could actually improve your practice?
Ideally, these are things that either nobody else can do but you… or things you can’t delegate.
Basically, if someone else can do it, you probably should not be doing it.
Productivity is not doing more.
I think it often comes from doing less… but doing the right less.
Two things. One in the morning. One in the afternoon. Put a time limit on each.
Work on them or finish them.
Either way, you will go to bed feeling more fulfilled, more satisfied, and surprisingly, you will probably get more done.
*credit Dr. Ben Altadona, Chirotrust
