I just read an interesting post on Fast Company by Doug Sundheim about “working like rain.” When you work like rain, you just do the work set out for you (by yourself or your boss) without worrying, second guessing, anticipating, regretting, replanning or procrastinating.
You work in the present, where none of the things you might worry about, anticipate, regret or replan exist. They really don't exist; they're only in your mind, so don't pay attention to them. Easier said than done, I know. But, like meditation, this is a good practice.
I have a version of this I call my “Boss Hat, Employee Hat” technique. When you are planning your work, you are in boss mode (even if you have an actual boss, you need to make some decisions about how and when to do your work). When you are doing the work, you're in employee mode.
It's extremely useful to separate out these two modes because they involve different kinds of thinking. When you mix them, that's when you're going back and forth between getting something done and deciding it isn't the most important thing and going on to something else.
A simple example of this is your to do list. Make your list in the evening. Don't make it too long. Prioritize it. Make sure it has only important things on it, no shoulds or maybes.
In the morning, do each thing on the list in order. Don't rewrite it, don't add anything, don't subtract anything. At the end of the day you can go back to being boss and review the day. Then you can make a better list for tomorrow.
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