Doing it all, all at once is bullshit. Listen, I know that may sound a little snarky at first glimpse, but if you’ll invest just a few minutes to read further, you’ll understand what I mean.
Nearly all of us wear what I like to call the “Cloak of Overwhelm”, it’s made of mentally thick heavy wool and we drag it with us every where we go. It absorbs more than it releases. And on some days the weight of it feels like someone has doused it with a fire hose, soaking it completely through to the point that we can barely support the weight of it.
We didn’t start out that way, we just had a few things here or there and slowly we increased our burdens to bear – “that’s life” after all. But over time, just a little bit at a time, we put more on our list than can be done, and then berate ourselves for not being able to “do it all”.
You can do it all, eventually, over time, you just can’t do it all, ALL AT ONCE. But you can, if you do them one thing at a time.
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. – Lao Tzu
So how can you remove this cloak of overwhelm? It’s not easy to take off, and often it’s really easy to put back on.
First … what is it that you’re doing? Re-evaluate all the things you’ve commited yourself to doing. If they are not giving you joy, enhancing your life or improving your business – perhaps they need to be scrapped.
YES, Scrapped! Quit doing things that are not making your life better. Make a list of all you’re commited to doing – practices, events, charities, etc. If you’ll be honest with yourself some of it is just crap. Sort out what is important to you, to your family, to your lifestyle and (for the entrepreneur reading) to your business then make a plan for your day around that.
There are dozens, probably hundreds of time management methods – but time isn’t the problem – you get the same amount of it every day, day in and day out. Its not the time that needs to be managed, it’s YOU.
So take off that cloak, reprioritize your life and take control – because you don’t need to do it all — just the most important things.
Want to read more about a simple approach to time management – you should check out 3 Things Each Day on Doug Sundheim’s blog or for a longer read – this is a great book by my friend Pam Dodd and Doug SundheimThe 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques: How to Get More Done Without Driving Yourself Crazy