When you have too much to do
One of my favorite books from about 10 years ago is Tim Ferriss's 4 Hour Work Week. It was just what I was looking for at the time and it's still one of my favorite books. It was my first introduction to Pareto's Principle and Parkinson's Law which are some of my favorite productivity principles to date.
But running your own business doesn't usually work out quite the way he lays it out :)
Faye Cornish
While there are ways to be more efficient when it comes to your to do list, there can still a lot to do even when you whittle it down to the bare essentials. What if you are planning an event or retreat? The months leading up to that can be quite busy. Once you're done with one task, you need to be on the next. No time for breaks.
This obviously is a stressful situation. But a lot of that stress comes from thinking about the end goal. "Once I'm done with A, I have to do B, then C, then D, then E, to get to Z!" We wonder how we'll ever get it all done to hit that end milestone. It just feels like so much.
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But once you have your plan built of A, then B, then C, then D - you don't have to think about each of those steps anymore. You have a plan, you don't need to re-hash it in your mind every few seconds.
You'll find yourself a lot less stressed if you focus ONLY on your task at hand. "I have to do A. End of story." Schedule a time block for yourself to work on A, then go work on A.
Only when you are done with A should you think about or work on B. If A and B are related in any way, like maybe some concepts tie into each other, only focus on the aspects that are related to getting A done. Don't think about the tasks that are needed for B.
This will greatly reduce your stress levels and it will keep you in your "zone" or your "flow" because you're fully focused on your task at hand - mentally, emotionally, etc.
If it's too hard to focus on just 1-2 things a day, pick your top two items for the day and hide the rest of your plan. Keep it out of sight.
Focus, focus, focus :)
How do you handle the stress of a crazy to do list and an intense timeline?
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