When something new — focus on familiar and soothing.
Can you negotiate? Can you get more time to finish this properly?
Set timers to track your extension time. At each timer, check yourself:
The more checkpoints you see, the smaller the step where you'll feel satisfied stopping.
Divide your work into smaller parts. Bargain with yourself: "I'll finish THIS checkpoint, then stop."
Before you stop, write yourself a note:
Make coming back easy for future-you.
Set up your quest now, before you switch. When you move to the new task, the same quest continues — creating unified context.
Quickly capture where you were mentally. Record to your voice recorder or write in your blog.
Preserve your thoughts to return to later.
Keep the same music playing from old task into new one.
Audio continuity helps smooth the transition.
Creates one unified context for everything happening and changing.
One storyline through the chaos.
In small doses, you can do both old and new simultaneously.
⚠️ Monitor your state closely! This is high-load.
Even if rushing, take 30 seconds to jot down:
Future-you will thank present-you.