I've been snagging a bit on RTM, and I'm doing a bit better now that I'm adopting my strategy for catching up on the NYT when I come back from vacation: finish today's paper first! No matter how much I want to read the magazine section, my primary goal is finishing today's sections first, and then I can start knocking out the bits I missed.

So, for RTM, I'm focusing on getting today's tasks done and counting that as a victory. If I get the chance to knock out an overdue task, awesome, but, unless it's (a) really urgent or (b) suddenly really easy, today's stuff comes first. This helps me have a streak to maintain, instead of letting one lagging task that I'm still not getting to make the whole day feel like a loss (which tends to trigger "What the hell" neglect of other tasks).

Plus, when I neglect a task for non-black swan reasons (i.e. breaking my toe) that's usually a sign I didn't break it up into subtasks very well, or need a better reward. So I need to reformulate before I just stick it back in the lineup.