One of my ex-co-workers would never handle non-emergent issues the first time they were handed to her. The piece of paper would be placed on the desk (or chair, or floor, or wherever) and left to be covered by other unrelated things.
“Just put it to the side and see if the issue arises again in a couple of days. If it does not, you just saved yourself some time” – my co-worker would say.
Somehow, most of the issues never returned to them. Or if they did, they had to occur a couple more times to finally be deemed worthy of my co-worker’s time. There were so many more important things to do like taking a break, or taking a break, or taking a break.
Personally, I could never not care about the work I was hired to do. My co-worker was able to compartmentalize and not worry about things that were not her priority. It would be alright if it was just happening at work, but that co-worker also acted that same way with their personal affairs. If you are like that – I would consider yourself lucky. Being able to not worry about things is definitely something I am working on. And if the stars shine upon you and you are able to get away with not doing important things, I definitely will not force you. You lucky ba****d.
However, today I encourage everyone else to tackle that pesky “to-do” list. Most likely, there are plenty of different things on that list and the list never ends. But there is a way to make it shorter and therefore less overwhelming.
Just do it!
A friend of mine reminded me of that this past week. There are a few things on top of their “to-do” list, which have been there for a while. I have continuously reminded them about these things, and finally, the things have been crossed off the list.
“See? And you were dreading this so much” – I said once the mission was accomplished.
Have you ever obsessed about having to do something, but instead of getting it done, you would put it off indefinitely? I think we all have at one point or another. Evading my responsibilities used to be my hobby. Not anymore. What I noticed was that whenever I have something to do that I do not want to do, that thing brings a storm cloud and covers my sky. Even if I try to outrun it by focusing on something else, that dark cloud still looms over me. Sure, I am not wrestling with it, but it dampens my mood. It casts a shadow on my happiness. Sometimes that shadow is not even felt consciously, but subconsciously, my body suffers. I get tired easily and become apathetic about other things. It sucks the life out of me. Turns me into a monster. Makes me snap at others without me knowing why.
Whenever I am reminded about the things I need to do, I am filled with dread. And that feeling is definitely toxic. So what do I do to alleviate it? I try and tackle whatever I need to do as soon as possible. The reason why we postpone certain things is often that we cannot predict everything pertaining to said issue. But you know what? Chances are that you will be as clueless tomorrow, or next week or next month. We often postpone it because the task requires a lot of effort; be it mental or physical. But you know what? It will require the same amount of effort today and next month. Nothing will change in that department. What might change, however, are the consequences.
Of course, I do not mean the little things in life. If you do not water your plants today, or next week, or next month, you can just go to the store and get a new one whenever you feel like it. But not everything is a product which we can replace. Some things we NEED to get done. Sure, you do not have to pay off that debt today, but the longer you postpone it, the more you will have to pay.
Another reason why I like to handle things as they come is that I know things do not always happen the way I want them to happen. Have you ever started something only to be faced with one obstacle after another? You just forced yourself to do something you did not want to do and now your task is even more complicated than it was before. What do you do? Because it is regarding something you came into begrudgingly, it is much easier to just throw up your hands and quit. Well, at least you tried, right? Wrong.
You are now stressed because your deadline is tomorrow. Maybe you should have started handling this issue a month ago and not wait until today? That way, you would have discovered this particular obstacle weeks ago and had the time to figure it out. Now you do not.
But I would still recommend that you try to solve the issue and move forward onto the next step. If you walk away now, you would have tried for nothing. And if you taking nothing out of that, then you just wasted so much of your valuable time. You might as well just keep plowing forward.
Instead of whining about having to do something, rip the band-aid off and DO IT! If there are problems along the way, overcome them. Once you are done, you will feel so much better, and you will be able to focus on other things without that dark cloud above you. Celebrate your achievements because you actually got it done!
Do not let your “to-do” list rule you; rule IT.
Stay golden,
***
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One day at a time... 
I love your final line here – “Do not let your ‘to-do’ list rule you; rule IT”. I think if we have too much to do we feel overwhelmed and that can keep us stuck. Like you, I like to do something to get me moving again, then the sense of achievement keeps me going. However, it needs to be in balance – all “to do” and no play is no fun!
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Totally agreed!
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I’m the kind of person who gets annoyed when I have something to do and can’t check it off my list. You know the feeling where you have to do something that you aren’t doing? that’s me. So, if i have to and i happen to postpone it for some reason or other, that thing stays niggling in the back of my mind. O Of course, what i see as priority might not be what someone else sees, so sometimes i’ll be annoyed because i didn’ do something someone believed to be silly.
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Totally. I used to be the exact opposite. Now I’m right there with you. Now, I try to find a balance of sorts.
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I was going to make the same point as your last, here: everyone’s priorities are different. Whenever something crosses my desk, I always make an effort to try to consider whether dealing with it sooner rather than later will make the other person’s life a little easier.
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That’s very nice of you. It’s funny when I get a request from my boss and think that they might want it sooner than later and I do it and they acknowledge the receipt of it weeks later… By that time, I almost forget about it.
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Actually having a written list helps me a lot. Once it is written down I can then prioritize. Whatever doesn’t get done stays on the list until it does. A quote my husband uses a lot is “Take care of the little things and the big thing take care of themselves.” I too love your last line.
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Why thank you.
I, too, pay attention to the little things. Most people disregard them. But I take care of them first, because often times it can just be done in a matter of minutes and then you can move onto something else. Otherwise, you never cross anything off.
Wise man your husband is.
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He is Indeed!
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The only lists I use are mental ones, because I’ve found that list-keeping can itself become an unwelcome chore that gets put on the back burner.
As Goldie says (albeit in Yoda-speak), your hubbie is wise. On my side of the Pond we say, “look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves” 🙂
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A cool saying.
Don’t you get overwhelmed with the mental lists? I sometimes did. Plus, aster a while, it became easy to just wave them away. Paper was less forgiving (unless I turned it over or just hid it in a notebook to be found much later, but that’s another story). It’s true, though, that paper lists keeping can become a chore that you delay. I’m trying to better organize my work but I don’t seem to want to spend the time on creating those helpful lists boards (to do-doing-done).
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Excellent piece of advice. I too tend to put something offs until it’s closer to a deadline so that my mind starts racing with a desire to complete it. I don’t know if it’s just cause I evaluate that the time needed to complete the task is far less than how much time I have to do it but I always end up doing it this way. Then again, I definitely concur. We should do everything we want to do as soon as we can, with as much organization as possible and the result will the rewarding!
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The rush of adrenaline definitely helps if you’re on a time crunch.
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Smart! Two things came to my mind when reading your post. The first one: sometimes I prefer to start working on a hard task the next morning so that I’m more energized and focused. If I receive a hard task in the afternoon when I’m already a bit tired and distracted, the result might not be the same. The second one: what I really hate in the to-do list (although I recognize its value) is that I can never stick to it as people around add their priorities into my basket again and again. Everything is urgent, everything is important, everything has to be handled immediately. There is a room for improvement in terms of my assertiveness.
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I’m glad starting a bigger project the next day works for you. I am more productive in the afternoon. Mornings are spent on me waking up and easing into things. The afternoons are when I’m awake and I actually do things quicker (without sacrificing quality), because I just want to get it done before the day ends.
As far as the second part of your comment is concerned… I can understand that and it’s a tricky one. I guess it depends on whether you can disregard the requests of others or not. If they add to your plate, they should accept that you’re the one who prioritizes the items.
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I think you’re absolutely right. It’s me who prioritize and even if my clients require immediate action, it’s eventually me who decides what’s most important at that moment. How do you cope with people who try to add to your plate?
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Mostly, I do it behind the scenes. I assure them things will get done and then get them done, but on my terms.
If my plate is full, I try to see if they can do it themselves.
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Smart! Worthy of replicating this approach.
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It works for me.
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I’ll definitely try it out. Thank you!
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All the time. Well, I put things off almost all the time. I’ve recently put a list together of the things I need to get done or put of the way. Most are long term tasks that will require time among other things, but we all have to start somewhere. As for the more immediate tasks, I do need to start getting them out of the way.
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I go through phases. I dislike incomplete tasks hanging over me, but sometimes I just don’t have the strength or motivation.
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I agree, incomplete tasks irk me. However, lack of motivation weighs heavily and those tasks don’t see completion until I find a breath of air.
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Definitely not easy to find the golden balance.
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My dear departed mother used to advise me to deal with everything that crossed my desk immediately. I was a rebellious teenager, so didn’t follow that advice… though now, on the whole, I find it useful to deal with things in that way, if time allows. There are two problems with putting things off until later: one is that inevitably you’ll get a follow-up reminder to do it, which will itself use up more of your time; the other is the possibility that you don’t get that reminder, and it drifts into the pile of things that never get done.
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Ah, the advice of a parent that is thought of as silly (you roll your eyes), and then decades later you find wisdom in it and something you live by. Been there, done that.
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