What You Can Do When There's Too Much To Do
There isn't enough time to do everything you want to do before you die.Let's face it.There just isn't.In fact, the same thing is true about your work.There just isn't enough time to do everything.
So let's crush a few thoughts, right now.
- "I have to do it."
- "It needs to get done."
- "No one else is going to do it."
These may be true, but a good question to ask yourself next is "what will happen if I don't get it all done?"
Does it really matter?
Understand that productivity and living a happy, healthy life isn't about doing more.It's just about output.Focus on the 20% of the things that will yield 80% of the results.Stop thinking that hard work is always the answer. It only turns results SOME of the time.If you were a youth with a paper route and you knew you could get paid $200 every week, it might seem like adding more paper routes would be the only way to make more money.But what if you found out that delivering mail pulled in $300 every week?Well, you just learned that not every hour you spend working is worth the same.
Of course, you've got to put in work, but not every hour worked is created equal.
Remember the character "Boxer" from Orwell's Animal Farm?He was a horse and every time he was faced with a problem, the solution was "I'll just work harder."Boxer ended up broken and worn out, causing him to be useless to the farmer.So the skill isn't to work harder, longer hours, or produce more widgets.The skill is determining what you SHOULDN'T be doing.The skill is determining all the things you're wasting your time doing because they aren't delivering amazing results.The skill is saying "no" to all of those things that aren't important.
2 Minute Action
Look at your to-do list today.Everything should fight for its life to stay on that list.Right now, kill one thing on that list. I'm not saying wait until tomorrow to do it.I really mean kill it. That's it. See ya later.Bye bye forever.Hard, right?Do it anyway.
The Most Overlooked and Practical Application For Trust
Missed meetings that stay on the calendar.A pile of to-dos.In fact, a big long list of to-dos with dates that are WAY overdue.Seems innocent, though, right?What harm could it do?You're just adjusting. You're still striving. You're just on your way there, right?
Here's the problem:
When you stray from the structure you've laid out--whether it's a calendar event, to-do, or whatever--you're building distrust.You're teaching yourself that you can't trust the calendar to tell you what's important because sometimes there are events you can miss.You're teaching yourself that you can't trust your to-do list because it's packed with tasks that don't matter and clog up your view of priorities.You're teaching yourself that you can't trust yourself to get things done or honor the schedule.If your calendar is sacred, you will trust it.You'll have a good relationship with your calendar and you'll enjoy using it as a tool--because it will actually be useful.You'll have a good relationship with your to-do list and you'll enjoy using it because it will also be useful.
2 Minute Action:
Scan your calendar for the week. Delete anything you KNOW won't happen. Reschedule, kick back, block off a chunk of time to get something done--whatever you need.Do it now.In tomorrow's post, I'm going to tell you more about how to prune and reset your to-do list.
The Most Common Email Mistake
The alarm goes off.You're out of bed.You go through the motions of a normal morning.You finally make it to your workstation.You log into your computer and then what happens . . .
Most people check their email.
You've probably heard this somewhere before but why would you start your day with someone else's to-do list?In fact, do you know why you get my email at 8 AM EST?So it'll be the first thing at the top of your inbox in the morning.But we trick ourselves into thinking that our email inbox is our to-do list for the day. It's easy, right? It's a list. It's check-off-able. And usually, we can blast through it pretty fast.The only caveat is that it prevents us from starting our day with the really important stuff.
2 Minute Action:
Turn email notifications off from your mobile.You're more likely to finish the stuff that's actually important if you aren't distracted every 11 minutes by someone else's urgency.I'd be honored if you stopped reading my emails in the morning. Go do the important stuff first, then come read this.