Today I’m a bit confused. I’ve got so many things on the go at the moment, I don’t really know where to start and I am procrastinating.
In this situation the temping thing to do is to pinball from task to task, making sure we at least touch everything once. Which rarely achieves anything. So here’s what I’m going to do. Clean out my files both digital and physical. Delete as many things as possible and make sure everything that remains deserves to be there. Once this is done, it will be easier to know what’s next.
Must be the week for it….I had my head in a spin mid week & did the same thing…. managed to untangle the cofusion just by getting one task done first ….then everything fell into place 🙂 Have fun with files 🙂
Productive procrastination is the best kind of procrastination!
I often just put paper, letters and stuff in a pile to attend to later… all it does is make stay awake at night worrying. 2010 – no paper piles. Attend to it or bin it.
Thanks for this post and your honesty!
I love the idea of a clean out as often the noise that ‘unfinished business’ leaves in our minds is worse than the act of doing it!
I can relate to feeling like there’s so much to do. I have so much information that inspires me and possibilities that open up (sometimes as often as each minute on Twitter!). I’m so much about being in the ‘flow’ of life and the feeling of being fragmented / too busy feels to me like I’m missing the juice in life.
So… the answer for me is to work on focusing/heightening my intuition. I’m doing this through:
1. Meditation (10mins or less) at the start of the day focusing on what is in my best interests to do for the day. From this I get very few tasks and can glide into other things that come up through the day.
2. Trusting my ‘inner voice’ more often – going with what arises for me even if it feels foreign.
We’ll see how it goes!!
How timely. Steve – just finished “The Naked Entrepreneur”, I would say that the lesson from that is to “surrender” to the confusion, not try and “control” by either pinballing or systematic filing. Just some food for thought though…
Must be the moons/planets aligning or something – I’ve had a similar week.
I solved mine, I suppose, by being at peace with the fact that I probably will never solve the problem! Then focused on thinking about where I’d like to be in 10 years time, given te present situation.
I’m feeling better now, but still aware that the itch is still there. I’ve resolved to be better to my body this week as a result. 🙂
Thanks for the post.
Steve,
You’re so right – it’s so hard to stop and refocus when there are so many tasks all “pulling” at the same time. Reviewing the lists and deleting what can be deleted is a great way to get a sense of control. Problem is most times you’re still probably going to be left over with a considerable amount of tasks…at that point what can be helpful is to review the list and ID the task that is causing the *most* anxiety, clear your desk of anything and everything that isn’t necessary to work on that one task, set a timer, and get working on it.
Claudine