Itemized minutiae tends to stick in my memory for a long time. If I have a long list of small tasks to do they will constantly resurface in my thoughts and remind me that they haven't been done yet. By nature I tend to defer these tasks (and higher order tasks) to a time when I can "knock them out", or sit down and do them all in one go.

That leaves me with a disgusting amount of mental clutter and neuron cycles wasted juggling the memory of those tasks. Late at night instead of sleeping I'll be thinking about what the best time to do those tasks is and fretting about why I haven't done them yet.

Therefore, to crush this character flaw and to focus on the things that matter, small to-do tasks should be dealt with as they appear.

That means address changes, short email responses, obnoxious online annual work training tutorials, bill payment, and so on, should only hit the desk one time before they're taken care of and filed away. These are regular things that everyone has to deal with, and I am not above them simply because I am "clever" or "busy". Hoarding tasks like these gridlocks me, and so they should be destroyed immediately.