93. The 10-Minute Habit to Make Every Day Less Stressful and More Productive

task managementADHD/Executive Functionsproductivityfocus
Written By Katie Azevedo

Episode 93

The fastest way to beat procrastination and lower stress at school and at work is to get crystal-clear about what you’re doing. Without clarity, your mind spirals with anxious questions (What do I have to do? Am I missing something?) and you’re more likely to waste time on the wrong things.

In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I teach you a practical 10-minute habit that can revolutionize how you begin and end each day — so that you feel good about the work you did today and have clarity about the work you’ll face tomorrow.

What You Learn:

  • Why unfinished tasks (open loops) make it hard to focus or relax.

  • How a quick 10-minute habit (split into two simple 5-minute routines) can lower stress at night and boost clarity in the morning.

  • Why this system works for both students and professionals, no matter how busy you are.

  • The hidden link between clarity and procrastination

  • Common excuses that keep people from sticking with new habits

Episodes and Resources Mentioned:

Never stop learning.

  • The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them 😉

    YThe 10-Minute Habit That Makes Every Day Less Stressful and More Productive

    ===


    [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. This is Katie, and today we're gonna talk about a micro habit that even though it takes just around 10 minutes to do, can really lower your stress and improve your productivity. Yes, that sounds like a mighty big claim, but at the end of the day, a lot of what we talk about here on the podcast is about systems and habits and strategies that are all within our control that we can implement and adjust and tweak, [00:00:30] and in doing so, we see the larger impact of our lives becoming easier, and it's exactly what we're gonna cover today. I'm gonna share a 10 minute habit that makes every day, or has the potential to make every day less stressful and more productive for both students and professionals.


    But like all of the strategies I share in the show, it'll only work if you're open-minded, if you are willing to try it. If you really truly think about how you might tweak it to fit your own life. And then put it into [00:01:00] action. Because listening to this show or watching the show, if you're on YouTube, isn't enough.


    It's listen and learn first, and then do. So my promise to you is to share the strategies and your promise to yourself is to try them out. So let's begin.


    [00:01:30] Okay. I know I am not the only one who has experienced this scenario of lying in bed at night, and one thought after another pops into your head like popcorn. Like, did I email this person back? Did I submit that assignment? Did I remember to set up that project? Do I have anything due tomorrow?


    Was that meeting tomorrow was at test [00:02:00] tomorrow? Who am I and what's the meaning of life like? Honestly, I'm not the only one. You know what I'm talking about? These thoughts that you thought you had under control at the end of a day somehow come alive again when you're trying to shut down at night. Now, David Allen in OG in the productivity space, if you are my age or older, you've likely heard of him and his getting Things Done system, but he named these.


    Popcorn, thoughts Open loops. Okay. [00:02:30] He calls them open loops, and I think it's an awesome way to visualize what these things are. Open loops are these tasks that usually aren't complete yet. They're kind of still in the works, or maybe some of them are technically completed, but your mind isn't done with them.


    The assignments, the projects, the emails, the conversations, the to-do lists and the tasks. All of the things that are on our plate that we are in charge of that remain open in our brains until they are legitimately [00:03:00] done, and we have some way of indicating to ourselves that they are done. Okay, now open loops are okay.


    They're fine because whether you're a student or a professional, it is rare that at the end of the day you're gonna complete everything on your list. Like if only it works that way. So it's normal to go to bed at night with incomplete work because it's something you're still working on, if that makes sense.


    But the problem is that if we don't have some way of temporarily closing these open loops or [00:03:30] giving ourselves some kind of system for managing. These open loops and telling our brains, Hey, like I know we're working on this, but you can let go of it for now because we will return to it tomorrow. Then our brain is gonna do everything in its power to hold onto these thoughts so we don't forget them.


    In fact, our brains think they are doing us a favor, aren't they? So cute. But in reality, our brains are only stressing us out, and that's what's happening when we can't sleep at night or we can't, you know, shut down after work and enjoy our [00:04:00] after work lives because we are thinking of our to-do list. All right, so hold that scenario, okay?


    Because I'm sure it's scenario, it's familiar to you, but also what can happen is when we wake up to start our day, and depending on whether you are a student or a professional, you may sit at your desk and stare at your computer screen wondering, what the heck am I doing today? I have a million things on my plate and I don't know where to start.


    In fact, I don't remember where I was in terms of yesterday's history essay, or I don't know what step I [00:04:30] was on for that. You know, new slide deck I'm creating for work. And then soon that becomes a spiral of like, oh my gosh, I have so much to do and I don't know where to start, and I actually can't even tell you everything that I have to do because everything's, you know, blurred together.


    And now I am so overwhelmed that I'm not gonna do any of it. Or if I'm gonna work on this thing here, that might not even be the right thing to work on. So this episode aims to address both of those scenarios with a simple 10 minute habit to make your day less stressful and more [00:05:00] productive.


    And then more specifically, I'm gonna divide that 10 minute habit into two five minute routines, one for the morning and one for the evening. So five minutes at the start of your day and five minutes at the end of your day. And yes, I am making the strong claim that this habit can lower your stress and lower your loud panicky thoughts at night, and can also give you more clarity and focus when you begin your work or your studies each day.


    And we're gonna start with the morning. [00:05:30] Now, I know that everybody has a different situation. Some of you are working, some of you are in school, some of you are doing both. You may have different work schedules and different school schedules. So I'm gonna share some general guidelines and strategies. But the particulars about where and when you will do this are probably just gonna depend on what your daily schedule looks like.


    Okay? So just adjust as needed. That goes for everything I share on this show. So. Whenever you start your work for the day, again, that might be [00:06:00] 6:00 AM it might be 11 o'clock in the morning depending on your situation. I want you to take five minutes for a simple setup routine. Now don't worry, I'm not gonna walk you through a 25 step morning routine that involves an ice ice bath in meditations.


    This you do you, this is different. But find five minutes either at your desk or at the kitchen counter, or on the train or in a bus, in a box with a fox. I don't care. Whatever. Take out your task management system. I don't think I've talked about [00:06:30] anything more on this show. Anything more then? Task management systems.


    If this is your first episode and you don't know what I'm talking about, then I'm gonna direct you to episode five, which is Secrets of a Good Task Management System, and then also to episode 10, which are tips for a Better Task Management and episode 48. Which has some more task management tips.


    I will leave all of those links in the description box on YouTube at learn and work smarter.com/podcast/ 93. And then also, depending [00:07:00] when you are listening to this episode, I will be putting out a new task management, or I'm gonna call it the Assignment Management Power System. It's gonna be a mini course that teaches you all about.


    Assignment management if you are a student, this episode is gonna come out at the end of September, 2025, and my task management course is gonna come out probably in the beginning of October, 2025, so very shortly. Anyways, my point is that you need to have one source of truth [00:07:30] where all of your tasks live.


    If you're a student, this would be your assignment notebook of some kind. If you are in the workforce, it could also be a planner or a project management system like Trello or Asana. If you are brand new to this, it could simply be a blank piece of paper, like a running to-do list on a notebook, but somewhere that is not in your head.


    And if you're a student, somewhere that's not your learning management system. And what I want you to do with this system, literally on the table, on the desk, or [00:08:00] on the screen in front of you is four things, okay? And yes, this is all happening in five minutes. Okay? Let's go over these four things. Number one, review your task list.


    So these are all of the things that are on your plate for the next few days. If you're a student, you might have a test coming up in a few days. So something you might need to do today is to have a study session. Maybe you have an assignment due at midnight that day, so working on the assignment today might be something you have on your task list for today.[00:08:30] 


    If you're a working professional, maybe it's a report you're working on, maybe you have to turn something in at the end of the day too, and you need to put the final touches on it. Maybe you have a meeting this afternoon and it's something that you need to prepare for. And then you also know that you have to do some sort of post-meeting review, like processing your notes.


    I teach strategies for both of those scenarios in episode 31 and 61. I don't know what your particular task list looks like because I dunno what your job is, but my point is I want you to look at all these [00:09:00] things that you have in one place. Now, your task list is not necessarily everything that has to get done today.


    Some of it might be sure, but some of it is just stuff that you're working on and it's due at some point. So that's number one. I just want you to look at your tasks to get a sense of what are the things that I need to be working on or want to be working on or should be working on. We're just looking.


    Now, number two, I want you to identify your top three. Now, I know some of you might [00:09:30] be rolling your eyes and thinking I have way more things to do than three. Fair enough. So do I. But I still want you to identify your top three. And this isn't something that you're gonna spend a lot of time on.


    This is a gut check. This is maybe a quick glance at your deadlines, but otherwise, just looking at your task list and saying, okay, this, this, and this are super important. Maybe one is urgent, like there's a, a deadline attached. Or maybe one isn't urgent, but it's important to you, like a step toward a project that's due later this [00:10:00] week, or it's something that you personally wanna make progress on.


    Okay, but in most cases, your top three are gonna be a combination of urgent and important. Now, why pick your top three? 'cause it forces you to assess all of the things. And find some kind of hierarchy, because if we don't practice the skill of prioritization, then we end up in this panicked state of, I have a thousand things to do and you know, everything is super important and I'll never get it done.


    So therefore, I'm gonna enter a state of analysis paralysis and have a total cognitive shutdown. And [00:10:30] now I won't do anything, which makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed and even more overwhelmed because I spent all day doing nothing I was supposed to do. So find your top three and circle them or indicate in some way that that is what you'll be working on.


    And if all else fails at the end of the day, and you only get to these three things, that is a good day if you get to two or more. Good enough. Alright, number three, do a quick check of your schedules and your calendar. So our tasks [00:11:00] are not the same thing as our time commitments, our schedule and our calendar show where we have to be and at what time.


    And then our task list is like what we have to do. So I know as a mom of two teenagers and essentially the household manager and someone who owns and operates a very busy business, I have a lot of places and a lot of times going on for a lot of people at once. And if I don't begin each day clarifying that this kid has to be here, this kid has to be here, this kid needs a ride there, this thing starts at this [00:11:30] time, then it's a recipe for disaster for the whole family.


    And this likely is your scenario too.


    Typically, the place we go to check for these things is a digital calendar, like Google Calendar. If you're a student and you are not yet set up on some kind of digital calendar, let this be your sign from the universe. Then you gotta get on that. You can't be a fully functional, non-stressed out student without being in charge of your own calendar.


    And as much as I am an analog person for task management, digital calendars are more practical for most [00:12:00] people. So open up your calendar and do a quick scan of the events of the day. This might take one minute max. Okay? We're not like creating a digital calendar from scratch here. If there's a conflict somewhere, like your calendar is telling you that you have to be in two places at one time, that's when you problem solve. Okay? But in most cases, you will look at your calendar simply to get a sense of what is coming up that day. And the reason I am making the case that there shouldn't be that many conflicts is because of the second part of this routine that we're gonna do at [00:12:30] the end, um, of your workday, which is obviously something I haven't gotten to yet in this podcast episode.


    'cause I'm still on the five, the five minutes of the morning. Okay, I'm gonna cover that next. But these two parts of the routine, the setup and the closeout routine, they work together really well to prevent that kind of chaos of looking over your calendar and saying like, oh no, I have to be in two places at once.


    All right, and then the last step of this five minute setup routine is to decide if and when an admin block will fit into your day. I have [00:13:00] talked so much about admin blocks on this show, the concept of them, but again, if you're new here, I want you to go to episode three to understand what I'm talking about.


    Yes, episode three, which is one of my earliest episodes that I planned on purpose because this concept of an admin block is that fundamental to learning and working smarter. So depending on your situation, you may need an admin block that's 15 minutes, or you may need one that's 60 minutes. Again, that all depends on your unique [00:13:30] scenario, but an admin block is a designated slot in your day that you're gonna handle administration tasks, like following up with people, uh, maybe checking emails. It could be going through your learning management system and making sure that everything is submitted. That happens a lot with my students. They complete their work, but they never follow through on the actual final step of submitting it.


    Right. It might be to quickly go through your email inbox. And not to reply to everybody in there, okay to, 'cause that's like a whole email management [00:14:00] thing, but just extract information from the emails and put it in the right spot. So if you got an email asking you to do something, you wouldn't necessarily do it in an admin.


    Block, but you would pull that information from the email and put it in your task management system. I talk all about that email management strategy in episode 15. I'll also link it in the show notes. Now, admin might mean making a phone call or getting into your digital calendar and managing some of the stuff in there.


    It might mean sending invoices or maybe doing some quick [00:14:30] sort of digital organization. Any administration task that supports the larger work you do, but isn't exactly the larger work you do is an administration task that can go in an admin block. Okay? And in your five minute morning routine or setup routine, I want you to just choose where that admin block is going to exist in your day, okay?


    If you need one. So a quick recap of what we're doing in these five minutes in the morning. And yes, I, I am still sticking to the fact that this can be done in five minutes. As long as this is [00:15:00] a system that you upkeep and you do regularly, five minutes, it's no problem. But if you are absolutely new to task management and to time management, and you don't have either of these systems set up and you don't have a digital calendar created, obviously those pieces do need to be put in place first.


    And that doesn't take five minutes. But number one, we are looking at our upcoming tasks just to get a sense of what they are. This might mean just looking at our task management system that we already have locked and loaded. It might mean popping into [00:15:30] email or your learning management system and pulling things from there to put into your to-do list.


    'cause sometimes they, you know, you get an email or some, your professor posts something to the portal overnight. So in the morning you're going in and you're checking for those things.


    Number two, identifying your top three tasks that you will commit to that day. Number three, doing a quick sweep of your schedule and your calendar so you can remind yourself where you need to be and at what time.


    If anything is funky and there are conflicts, we can handle that [00:16:00] outside of these five minutes. And then lastly, you're looking at your schedule for the day and figuring out where you might be able to put an admin block. Now, of course, there is so much more that you can do to set your day up for success.


    I talk about routines a lot on this show. One episode you might find helpful is episode 21, how to Plan Your Ideal Week. And in that episode, I share strategies that compliment what we're doing in this five minutes in the morning if you want something more robust. But doing these [00:16:30] simple, quick tasks makes all of the difference because it gives you clarity on your day. And I've said it before and I'll say it again, that clarity is the enemy of procrastination, distraction, and stress. And then, hey, before we move on to the evening part of the system, can I ask you a quick favor?


    If you're watching this on YouTube, can you. Subscribe. You haven't done so already, so you don't miss any future episodes. And then if you're listening in a podcast app, leaving a quick review is one of the best ways to help other people find the show. I would really [00:17:00] appreciate that. Okay, so that was the morning routine, the set up routine.


    Now let's talk about the other half of the system, the closeout routine. Now this is a five. Ish minute ritual that lets your brain stop chasing the loose ends all night. You can do it before you leave your desk, wherever your desk is, maybe after your last class, or it's the final thing that you do before shutting your laptop.


    It does not have to be right before bed. In fact, I prefer it as the last step [00:17:30] of the work day or school day, whatever, so you can actually be a human during your evening. If you do this right before bed, you might reactivate some of the worry that you know, this closeout routine is supposed to get rid of.


    But I do understand that if you're a student, sometimes you are working on your school stuff until 11:00 PM so you can't even close out your day until. That time at least. So I get that. But here's how the closeout routine works.


    Step one is to review what you touched today. Now, this might take about [00:18:00] two minutes, okay, of the five. This is not a victory lap of all you've accomplished. I mean, it can be, but that's not what I'm saying here. It's also not a full postmortem of everything that fell apart. It's just a quick audit so that to tomorrow you doesn't waste the first 20 minutes trying to remember


    where you left off, so you open your task management system and you're just scanning the things on it. If there's a task you completed, check it off. If there's a task that you didn't get to, then move it to another day, ideally later that week. If there's something you worked on but you didn't [00:18:30] complete, I want you to write a quick status note to yourself if you didn't do that already.


    Now, a status note is a simple note to yourself whenever you have to leave a project in the middle of it, either because you had to get up and go, or it's just a multi-step project that takes a while to do. But basically you just write down the last step you completed, what the next step is that you'll need to start on when you return to it, and then if it's relevant, sort of anything that you're waiting on from other people.


    I suggest making a status note for projects as you [00:19:00] step away from them in the moment. But if there's any that maybe you didn't get to, you can do that in your closeout routine. Why is this matter? Well, your working memory is not a storage unit. We have already covered that. If you didn't write where I left off, your brain will try to keep that tab open all evening, two minutes at the end of your workday saves you from 10 anxious minutes later trying to reconstruct your status on things that at this point are completely gone from your working memory.


    Next, a quick scroll through your email. Now I promise to keep this around five minutes. [00:19:30] Okay. So we are not answering emails right now. We're not doing a full email management thing.


    We're just doing a quick sweep through them to see if there's anything that came in that day that you didn't acknowledge yet, that you didn't manage yet. And by manage, I mean extract information from. So let's say that you got an email from a colleague that says, Hey, can you let me know your status on, you know the part of the project that you're responsible for. Okay, well, maybe you're not gonna do that five minutes before you leave the office, but you can write that [00:20:00] task in your task management system to be handled the next day. So you would write down like or type whatever, follow up with Sarah about project and then you would leave that email alone.


    You wouldn't do the task, right? You just write down the task down. Let's say that you're a student and you got an email from a professor telling you that your chemistry ex exam is moved from Thursday to Friday. Alright, well, you have two choices. You could either quickly go into your calendar and update that date, or you can write in your task management system, change exam date to Friday [00:20:30] as something that you would handle the next day.

    Again, we're not spending time answering emails and doing everything that those emails are asking us to do. We're just documenting that that information exists and we're writing it down for our tomorrow selves to handle so that our tonight selves can have clarity and peace of mind that things are documented. And then step three, the last one. Set tomorrow's starting line. Alright, so this last piece of the closeout routine is to take a super quick look at [00:21:00] tomorrow and figure out how it's gonna begin. So here's all you're doing. Okay. You are skimming tomorrow's calendar, so you know, it's already locked in- classes, meetings, appointments, whatever, just to get a sense of like what is happening tomorrow.

    And then from your task list, pick your top three tasks for tomorrow. That's it. Three things, not 10, not 15. Just three. You can always add more once you're in the day, but having your top three already set means that you wake up knowing exactly what you're aiming for, and yes, I know that earlier I [00:21:30] said to identify your top three in the morning, and I still want you to do that.

    The difference is that if you set them up the night before than in the morning, you're just validating what you chose. You might tweak them if something urgent came in overnight. But otherwise, you've really already done the he heavy lifting. And if for some reason you in the evening time weren't able to identify your top three, you have the backup of being able to do that in the morning.

    This is all about lowering the friction and taking the time to map out what you think might be your three most important tasks for the [00:22:00] following day is just another chance to review your day and to clarify what you worked on and what still needs to get handled and you're creating something useful for your future self.

    When you wake up in the morning and you already have the etchings of a roadmap for your day.


    Now a pro move is to not only identify your top three priorities, but also to identify which one you are gonna start with. That way when you sit down to do your work or your schoolwork tomorrow, whatever, you're not starting with, okay, well what am I doing? What are my top three? Which of my top [00:22:30] three am I working on and when? You do just a little bit of that legwork upfront the night before and your tomorrow self will thank you for the additional clarity and the direction. Okay, so quick recap of those three things you're doing in your five minutes, um, at the end of your workday.

    Number one, scan your task list and make sure that everything in there is handled in some way. That means that you have checked off the things that you have completed. You've written yourself little status notes on the things that are partially completed, and you're moving incomplete tasks to another specific day when you intend to handle them.


    [00:23:00] Number two, you're doing a quick scan of your email just to extract the tasks from those emails and put 'em on your task management system to be handled the next day. Again, we are not using this time to respond to emails. That would be like an admin task block. Right? And then finally, we're giving a little consideration for the day ahead by choosing our top three priorities and maybe picking what we're gonna start with.

    All of this is again, in the name of clarity, which is again, in the name of decreased stress and procrastination and increased [00:23:30] productivity and focus. Okay. Next up I wanna cover a few common obstacles to this 10 minute habit that you might face as well, and then some strategies to overcome these roadblocks or kind of like mental roadblocks or sort of stories that we tell ourselves about why this won't work for me.

    Number one, you might be telling yourself, I don't have time. And listen, I get it. Like I, I do. You don't have time because you're busy. Me too. I don't have time because I'm busy too. Okay. And same thing for everybody listening to this show. Everybody's busy, but you're only asking yourself for about 10 minutes [00:24:00] total.

    And if you wanna talk about time, I challenge you to open up your phone and check how many minutes or hours in some cases you have spent doing brain rod activities on your phone. And then tell me you don't have time. Also, if you're busy, then you don't have time to not do this. 'cause it costs you more time later when you're staring at your screen wondering what to do.

    If it helps, you can set a timer, um, and just allow yourself to just hard stop when the five minutes is up. Some people find that really helpful.


    Next. you might be worried. Well, I'll forget to do it. Like I forget to do these [00:24:30] things, and fair enough. All right. A lo. Anytime you try to start something new, it's hard to make the habit stick so you can try to anchor it to something that you're already doing.

    That's called habit stacking. Maybe when you sit at your desk or when you sit down for first period in the morning, right? So every single time you sit down for first period in the morning, you're taking out your task management system. Maybe every time you have coffee in the morning, you're sitting down, enjoying your coffee, doing your setup routine.

    For your evening closeout. Maybe it's the last thing before shutting your laptop. Um, maybe it's after your last class or [00:25:00] when you put your backpack on the hook. If you want extra reinforcement, give yourself a reminder on your phone. But I've heard from a lot of people lately, they're like, I keep setting reminders that I'm ignoring them all.

    Change the sound of your reminder. Change the time that it goes off anytime we become jaded or. You know, something that we created for ourselves no longer piques our attention or feels urgent, change something about it. Okay. Uh, another roadblock is that you might be thinking, well, this just feels unnecessary.[00:25:30] 

    Yeah, well, new habits often feel extra because you're breaking your autopilot. Give it one week. Track two things each day, maybe how long it took you to start work, and then how noisy your brain felt at bedtime. Most people see both numbers drop after, I'd say a couple days, but let's say give it a week.

    And once you experience that, it stops feeling unnecessary and it begins to feel non-negotiable. And you start wondering like, why didn't I do this before? Okay. Another one you might be thinking, well, my days are [00:26:00] unpredictable, so this won't work. Great. That's exactly why the starting line is small and specific. Even on chaotic days, you can do a little tiny micro closeout of just, you know, reviewing what you completed for the day and maybe planning for one task that you're gonna handle tomorrow. Okay. Imperfect consistency beats perfect inconsistency every single time.

    I think that made sense. I'll have to hear that again when I go back and edit it, but whatever. And I also challenge you about this [00:26:30] argument that you can't do this 'cause your days are unpredictable. Because no matter how unpredictable your days are, there is always gonna be a beginning and an end to it.


    And I am making the case that you do this at the beginning and ending of your day. So from that lens, the strategy will work just fine. I'm not saying do this strategy, you know, at 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM every single day. It's just whenever the beginning of your day is and whenever the ending of your day is.


    Okay, so here is the whole system in one breath, if I can, well, not one breath, but [00:27:00] all wrapped up. So you're morning, about five minutes, you're scanning your tasks, you're picking your top three, you're sweeping your calendar and you're scheduling your admin block if it makes sense for you to do on that day.

    And in the evening, you are scanning your task list and cleaning it up. So you're checking off what's done, you're moving, um, incomplete tasks to another spot, and you're leaving a status note if needed. And you're doing a quick sweep of your email just to capture any tasks or info that need to be added to your system, and then you're picking your top three priorities for tomorrow. [00:27:30] Maybe if you're gonna, you know, be extra, just jot down the very first thing that you'll start with so you can sit down tomorrow already knowing where to begin. 10 minutes total buys you calmer nights. Clearer mornings and more productive days. Try it for one week. Notice your stress drop, notice your momentum increases, and then keep going.

    And as always, keep showing up. Keep doing the hard work, keep asking the hard questions, and never [00:28:00] stop learning. 

Katie Azevedo
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