I use a similar concept that I call “Fill your hands”. It’s a technique I learned from trying to pick up after two toddlers who indiscriminately strew objects around my house in a surrealistic tableau. I go around the room and “fill my hands” with as many random objects as I can hold, then one at a time put those objects wherever they belong until my hands are empty, then fill them again. It’s much more effective than simply staring at the mess and wailing “Where do I start?” In business, I have taught myself to apply the same concept. When I have so much work that I don’t know where to begin, I will abandon priority and simply “fill my hands” with a number of tasks (e.g. by dumping all my paperwork on my desk and attacking it one page at a time) and work until my metaphorical hands are empty.
One important trick to doing this is to not allow anything new into the process flow until you are ready…ignore phone calls, put off visitors, don’t even look at new paperwork. Otherwise, it is easy to become distracted from the “dash” or the process of emptying your hands. I find that doing this leads to a greater sense of satisfaction with my day, and lets me start the next pile of work with a little more energy and determination than I had prior to tackling the heap.