Use fleeting notes to avoid yak shaving

Before I dig into this post too much, I should probably quickly explain the title.

Fleeting notes (or disposable notes) are those quick notes that you take during the day. This could be using Apple Notes or Google Keep, or even just a notepad on your desk.

Yak shaving is when you have one issue get interrupted by another, which is interrupted by another, and it continues on to the point where the initial problem never gets solved. When I shared this idea a few years ago, I used this great clip from “Malcolm in the Middle”:

Fleeting notes can save you

As summarized well by Sal Ferrarello, the key is to put the new issues aside and continue to focus on the problem at hand. In the case of the video above, the new light bulbs were right there; make a quick note to yourself (“fix the wobbly shelf”), but grab the light bulb and fix the problem at hand first.

It’s easier said than done, as these problems lined up rather nicely ( in a scripted TV show, what are the odds?), but the same happens to us…