Deciding what to do

When a to do list is full of to do, it can be challenging to work out what to do!

And even when we start doing one to do we can be distracted with the thought of all of those other to dos.

How will they get done?
When might we get started on them?
Should we switch to one of the other to dos?

It’s one thing to list out what to do ... and another of when to do it.

Rechecking our to do list and seeing whether it’s still accurate - that is, do we still need all of those to dos - is such smart use of our time.

It’s like the ‘sharpen the saw’ activity of the two tree loppers - one who kept going with a dulling blade; the other pausing to sharpen their saw and therefore make better progress.

As good as the sharpen the saw advice is, we may not want to stop our busy day to revisit what’s on our to do list. We can fear we’re wasting time or losing our flow.

But we could already be wasting time and effort working without priority.

Check or refocus on what needs to be done as a priority. The other to dos can wait awhile.

Obsessed with a detail

Missile lock.
Focused on a target, excluding everything else.
Determined.
Sticking with it.

This is singleminded focus.
And we need it in many situations.

Yet our crazy changing world requires us to also lift ourselves up out of that detail and to see the wider view.

It doesn’t mean we don’t see that task or project as important.
It doesn’t mean we won’t return to working on it.

We can get lost, blinded and ignorant to what is important and what the priority is. Just because we’re ‘in too deep’ or ‘too far gone’ doesn’t mean it’s the right path or that we can’t pause or reverse out.

The ‘sunk cost fallacy’ can drive us to continue with something because we’ve already put so much effort in.

But hey, isn’t that also a good reason to pause, and reassess if it really is still so very important?

Somewhere between persistence and stubbornness is a space ... a flexible space where we can put our attention and effort so it’s valuable, impactful ...and efficient.

If we don’t raise our eyes, lift our head and come up out of the detail, we may never see what the bigger picture is all about.

Pause for a little while.
Look up ... and around.
Reset.

A cause of our overwhelm

Productivity techniques abound for organizing our email and managing our day, but there’s a BIG contributor to overwhelm that we may overlook.

We have too much ‘on the go’ at the one time: ‘too many planes in the air’; ‘juggling too many balls’.

These sayings we use to explain overwhelm are so true !

Too much up in the air, unfinished, not landed or not done.

The problem is less about our ‘to do’ list being too long and more about how many things from the list we’re doing at once.

We inch ahead on too many tasks simultaneously, diluting our efforts ... and our attention. Our mind is full of everything we’re juggling.

These are the classic conditions for overwhelm. No wonder we feel buried, overwhelmed or inundated.

A better way of working is to reduce the number of tasks we’re working on.

‘Stop starting / start finishing‘ is an often-used mantra for this better way of working.

If you lead a team, help them prioritise and reduce the number of things they’re working on.

And if you’re your own boss or run your own business, experiment with your focus ... on fewer things.

You’ll then be in a powerful position to get the upper hand on overwhelm.

Get going or slow down

Do you need something to give you a push along ... to get you going?

Or do you need something to slow you down?

Being stuck ain’t fun. Frozen in possibility and uncertainty. There are plenty of reasons why it’s hard to get going with an idea or project.

But equally, running or flying too fast for too long can become a problem too.

There are subtle adjustments we can make and actions we can take to get going and get out of inertia. It’s a firing up, an ignition, the acceleration.

At other times we need some adjustment of speed, slowing down, a deceleration towards a speed that is more restful or ... simply sustainable.

More more more
faster faster faster
isn’t
better better better.

No matter what the world is pushing on you.

Getting started on something else might be better.
Going a little slower might be better.

Which do you need?

I’m currently slowing down. And you? Let me know...

From old ways to better ways of working

If there’s too much to do and you can’t get through it all, what do you do? A productivity app won’t magically change an entire team or organisation. There’s a bigger change needed, a fundamental shift in how we think about work.

Many of the things we do in our daily work are old ways of working. They’re leftovers from when the world - and the work - was quite different.

Some of our dated work methods are routines and habits that are hard to break.

We can consider changing the way we work to:
💫 reduce wasted activity and effort
💫 deliver greater value to customers sooner
💫 increase productivity
💫 be more effective in all we do...

Which means we get to remove some of those old ways of working:
🗑 Low value tasks and meetings
🗑 Weeks of work on a project that never gets used
🗑 Changes to documents back and forth up the chain of command
🗑 Talk-fests that don’t lead to decisions or outcomes.

As with all new habits, knowing about them is one thing, using and practically applying them is a whole other thing.

It’s good to start with some knowing, that a shift to better ways is happening.