Time And Tide
  photo credit: s,B – Michael Brenton-Kingof The Wachoo Wachoo |
It seems to me that the greatest risk facing creative, driven people today is not obscurity. It’s burnout.
I read this in a blog entry today:
“Let’s be honest, when was the last time you felt as though you had enough time to do the things you wanted to do in one day?”
Very good question. If you’re anything like most of the folks I know, you’re running just about as hard as you can to get as much crammed into a day as you can.
I have to wonder how healthy a thing this is.
Think about it. You can try to give 16 ounces of water into a 12 ounce glass, but it will just overflow and make a mess. Put 12 ounces in, and it’s hard to move, likely to spill. But put eight ounces in the glass, and you’ve got a winning proposition.
There is nothing wrong with ambition, but surely the stress we put on ourselves (and our families) when pushing it too far is bad for us. There is nothing wrong with wanting to achieve, but can you do it without wasting yourself in the process?
It seems to me that, unless someone finds a way to slow time itself, the only option to getting everything you want to get done in a day is to want to do less stuff.
When I was a consultant, we use to talk about “managing client expectations.” This is, of course, corporate-speak for preparing a client to be told “no” when they asked for things that were out of the scope of the project. Managing life is not so different, but out here we call it self-discipline.
The “mind” is a child. You know that I mean…that loud, chattering part of yourself that craves the candy you should not have, distracts you, criticizes your work, reminds you that you don’t really want to be at work that day. It’s contrary, argumentative, and is generally a pain in the ass. The mind craves information like the body craves food. It will always want to gorge itself. Treat your mind like a client. Manage expectations. This is the sort of thing that project managers have to deal with all the time from clients. Clients want and want and want. Nothing wrong with that, it’s the way of things. A good project manager has to be able to say no politely but firmly. Basically…you need to be that project manager. I am fairly certain that is what “being an adult” means. Having the self-discipline to manage your life in a healthy manner.
This is what we need to do to our spinning monkey-minds. There may be things that we truly want to do…but we need to plan them. This is the glory of creating lists. I’m convinced that one of the reasons that David Allen’s [[[GTD]]] system is so successful is that is distracts the mind by giving a system to play with, thereby getting it out of the way so that you, the doer, can get things done. The mind loves lists. At first, it will protest, but after you get into it, it will love the structure of it. Simple lists give the monkey something to play with for a while, and in the mean time, you can focus on what is in front of you, and get it done. Then move on to the next thing. But keep it short. Keep it realistic. Pick a day where you do NOTHING on a list. Rest. Recharge. Then come back strong the next day.
A while back, I interviewed a good friend who converted to Judaism. He is very strict about the Sabbath, and he works in the information technology field. According to him, he is more productive now that he takes that time away from the work. Far more so then when he was scrambling and strung out trying to make crazy deadline after crazy self-imposed deadline.
Having deadlines is a form of self-disciple, absolutely. But the converse is also true. It’s become easier than ever to say yes, to take on something new, to commit and commit can commit. Do you have what it takes to fall back, regroup, and keep your sanity?
