This post is going to be quite direct to the point of seeming rude and not compassionate but I would like to express these ideas as clearly as possible.
In my life, like most people, I’ve oscillated between being being ‘on top of things’ and ‘snowed under’. Feeling on top of things is when there is nothing immediate or delayed that needs to be done. Being snowed under is feeling there is about 29 issues, most of which I can’t bring to mind, that are requiring my attention.
None of these 29 issues are an emergency, for many of the 29 things its not even fully clear if anything needs to be done. One may be the fact I haven’t flossed for 3 days. One may be that the car has scratches that I would like to repair before selling it. 8 are Outlook emails that I think I should probably reply to when I get round to it. One is Ziggy needs to be walked in the next 2 hours. 3 are books that I want to start, or finish. One is a feeling that Hao and I have been spending too much money over the past 3 weeks to the point where its probably not sustainable. One is the US-visa process dragging out and not knowing if I should chase it more aggresively. One is a message from an old friend that I’ve left on un-read in Facebook messenger, because it needs a kind and proper reply.
The 29 issues, whatever they are for you, can easily converge into one lump of feeling, which sits in your mind and makes you feel like you’re snowed under.
What I’ve seen in the workplace is, the busiest and most productive people will reply immediately or never. The most stressed and avoidant people tend to maybe reply, after 3 or 4 days, or never.
What I think these productive people understand is the clarity that you can be undecided whether to do something, but in the end you either do it or you don’t do it, there is no third way of half doing a thing.
There is no limit of things you cannot do, there is a limit of things you can do, but there is a much smaller and tighter limit of things you are undecided about doing. This undecided category is needed but its expensive, and needs to remain as clean as possible if you want to not just be productive but also just be clear minded.
Trying to get to zero emails in my inbox, for me most of the time means dropping stuff I know I should do if I was perfect but in reality it was too much effort and not worth the squeeze. Every one of these tasks I conciously drop, is a breath of fresh air.
The most productive colleagues I’ve worked with have a clear headed intention to do things, some of which they never do at all because they can read the room and see its not really needed. The worst thing you can do is bring up those things, the best thing you can do is quietly drop them.
Some phrases to help me stay on this path:
- Remember my Reminders list is my servant not my master
- Drop truly optional things like listening to that podcast or reading that book, the modern world expects we should have 100 hours in a day. If you really wanted to read/listen you would just do it.
- The email in your inbox that has been there for 4 weeks: Archive it, forget about it.
- Things have a way of working themselves out, if you forget about an issue someone will bring it up or remind you
- If you don’t feel like doing it now, you won’t want to do it tomorrow either
- If it needs to be done but it’s a big thing, make a start on the framework and leave it there
- Have a clean desk for a clean mind
- Then take the opportunity to sit and be bored
- Admire these skills in other people
- Happy wife, happy life 😉
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