Too
much to do, not enough time.
This
is a perpetual problem for a lot of people, but it seems to be especially
pronounced during the holidays. With holiday events, shopping, travel, family
visiting … things tend to pile on top of our already busy lives.
But
no matter what time of year it is, the problem is the same: our list of tasks
is never ending, and our days are too short.
How
can we deal with this in a sane way?
I’ll
offer five suggestions that work for me.
1. Use this as an opportunity to practice
mindfulness. In the middle of your stress and feeling of
being overwhelmed … you have the opportunity to be present. When you notice
yourself feeling this way, drop in: notice how your body feels. Take a second
to observe the physical sensations of your surroundings (sounds, light, touch
sensations, etc.). Notice how your body feels as your mind is spinning with
anxiety or busyness.
No, stress and overwhelm are not the two most pleasant feelings,
but they’re also not the end of the world. And if you see them as an
opportunity to practice, to learn, to get better, then they can actually
be good news. They are your
teachers, and this is your time to be mindful.
You
don’t have to spend a whole minute dropping in, but just take five or 10
seconds. Just observe how you’re feeling, observe your surroundings, observe how
your thoughts are affecting you. Just notice, briefly, and in that short time,
you’ve woken up from the dream we’re in most of the time.
2. Realize that you can’t do it all right now.
You might have 20 things to do, or 100 … but you can’t do all of them right
now. You probably can’t do them all in the next hour even. How many can you
actually do right now?
One.
This reminder is meant to free us from the idea that we need to
do everything right now. We can’t. So instead, this allows us to focus on just one thing. Just pick one task, and
focus on that. Because the others, as urgent as they might seem, can’t possibly
be done right now. You can delegate them, eliminate them, defer them, but you
can’t do them all right now. So focus on one, and give it your full attention.
This is the most helpful way to work, in my experience.
3. Pick a high impact task to focus on.
When we’re busy, we often get into the mode of doing a lot of small tasks
really quickly. It feels like we’re knocking a lot of things off the list,
which can feel productive. But it’s just running around like a chicken without
a head.
If you’re going to focus on just one task, it’s best to make it
a good one. Something that will have a decent impact on your day, your work,
your life. That probably isn’t answering a bunch of unimportant emails or
checking Facebook messages. One important email that will close a deal, move
along a key project, help someone’s life … that’s a higher impact task. For me,
writing is almost always the highest impact thing I can do. It’s hard to figure
out what the highest impact
task might be, but if you give it some thought, you can see which ones are
probably not that important, and which ones are more important. Pick one from
the latter category when you can.
That
said, you still have to do the smaller tasks. Answer the other emails, run the
errands, clean the kitchen counter. I like to take care of those between the
bigger tasks, as a way to take a break. Do something important with focus, then
relieve my brain by cleaning or answering a few emails. The key is not to
procrastinate on the bigger tasks by doing the smaller ones.
4. Be present with this task, with intention.
Once you’ve picked an important task, set aside everything else for now. You
can’t do them all now, so be here with the one you’ve chosen. Breathe. Set an
intention for this task: who are you doing this for, and why? For me, I am
often doing my work tasks for you guys (my readers), but I do personal tasks
for my family or to help myself. Set a simple intention: I’m writing this
article to help my readers who are struggling.
Then
let that intention move you as you focus on the task. Be present with the task,
noticing how your body feels as you do the task, letting yourself melt into the
doing of it, pouring yourself into it as fully as you can. You might get the
urge to switch to something else — just notice that and stay with the urge, not
letting yourself follow it unthinkingly, then return to the task when the urge
subsides. Remember your intention, then let yourself be fully immersed in the
task.
5. Practice letting go, with a smile.
Having too much to do, and wanting to get it all done as soon as possible … can
actually get in the way of doing. This desire to get it all done is an
obstacle. Luckily, it’s a great practice to work with this obstacle!
The practice is letting it go. Notice what you think you need to
do (your ideal), and let go of it. Instead, tell yourself
you don’t know, and instead be open to the reality that’s right in front of
you: you can only do one task. Be open to that idea, and the stress will be
lowered.
And
as you let go of your ideal and open to the reality, smile. Be grateful for the
moment you actually have, rather than wishing for the one you don’t have.
Smile, and be happy now, rather than waiting for happiness to come at some
unspecified date.
In
the end, will these suggestions clear away your to-do list? No. You’ll always
have a lot of things on your list, and not enough time to do them all. What
this does is help you to deal with that fact, and make you more mindful and
focused in the middle of that reality.
Life
is too short to spend most of it stressed out by an unchangeable fact. We don’t
have to waste our time and mental energy worrying about too much to do.
Instead, we can smile and be happy doing what we can do now.
