I think the flip side of this approach is that one may get bogged down in doing tasks which give you short term satisfaction but don't do much in helping you pr

I think the flip side of this approach is that one may get bogged down in doing tasks which give you short term satisfaction but don't do much in helping you progress on real projects. I faced this problem often as a graduate student. On certain days, I would get immense satisfaction in discovering new Latex tricks and packages, tweaking research codes to the point of diminishing returns, organizing bibliography, etc. while making no real progress on my dissertation. I think while taking the approach of 'finish something today', one should consciously avoid falling into the trap of avoiding consequential tasks.