I have 40,000 unread emails.
I know. I know. My Positively Altered podcast guest Maura Thomas knows too, and she did not let me off the hook.
Maura is an accomplishment strategist, and when she’s not calling out podcast hosts like me on our inbox situation, she’s helping high performers answer one of the most quietly devastating questions in modern work life:
“When was the last time you ended a workday and felt like you had accomplished a lot?”
If that feeling of accomplishment is getting rarer, here’s what Maura wants you to do differently. You can start each one tomorrow!
1. Separate your inbox from your to-do list. Hint: Your inbox and to-do list are not the same thing. Your inbox is for receiving and processing messages, not for storing them and not for managing your day through them. If you’ve read it, put it on your task list, file it, or delete it. Leaving it in your inbox is just stress with a folder icon. 😰
2. Kill your notifications. All of them. That LinkedIn ping telling you someone liked your post? That’s not for you. That’s for the platform pulling you back in to monetize your attention. Maura built her framework on one truth: No one can steal your attention unless you allow it. Turn off every notification that doesn’t require an immediate response. Your attention is yours to allocate. As I like to say to my audiences, “SHIFT” it back to yourself.
3. Pick three to five things. That’s your whole day. Not a page-long list. Not a color-coded calendar blocked into 15-minute increments you’ll immediately ignore. Choose three to five meaningful next steps. Maura’s research is clear: The people who end their days feeling accomplished aren’t the ones who did the most. They’re the ones who did their work. Progress toward meaningful work is what makes a day feel good. Everything else is just noise. Your shift isn’t about overhauling your whole system overnight. It’s about reclaiming one decision at a time: Where does my attention actually go today?
Be positively altered.