Is This Tiny Thing Majorly Draining Your Productivity?

Fast Company — There’s a name for those everyday annoyances that build up and grate on your last nerve, drain your energy, and sap your productivity, says Madeleine Blanchard, co-founder of coaching services at The Ken Blanchard Companies in Escondido, California. They’re called tolerations. They include those little and not-so-little tasks, chores, and to-dos that we typically put off. They’re unpleasant enough that you want to avoid them, but pressing or disruptive enough that they have a negative impact on your daily life. The late coaching pioneer Thomas J. Leonard, founder of Coach U and the International Coach Federation, is widely credited with coining the term.

“It’s a condition or situation that’s irritating and can be eliminated—something you’re putting up with that has a negative impact on you, consuming your time, energy, or resources,” says executive coach Donna Schilder, founder of performance-coaching firm Glacier Point Solutions, Inc.