What is the thing you want to absolutely achieve? Tomorrow, this week, this month, this year.
What is it that you need to do to make it happen? Make a list.
Go through the list, one point at a time, and do not shift your focus until the list is done. Do rest, relax, take breaks. Particularly if the list is long. But do not invest energy, time, and meaningful work on a new shiny object.
Once you are done, reassess and celebrate the work you have done.
That’s it.
Nobody likes the idea of being irrelevant, and yet a growing incapacity to focus and control our attention is making us more irrelevant than ever.
What will you do about that?
People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. […] they actually think they’re more productive. They actually think they tend to – and most notably, they think they can shut it off, and that’s been the most striking aspect of this research. […] unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task.
Clifford Nass, The Myth of Multitasking
People do not always have good intentions. For your wellbeing, though, you will be better assuming they do.
If you don’t, you are left wondering.
Was that comment directed to me?
Does that mean they are not happy with my performance?
Are they not replying because of what happened last quarter?
This is a tiring excercise and you have better things to invest your limited resources on.
Assume good intentions, take note of what you feel (confusion, frustration, incompetence, insecurity), and discuss that face to face when possible.
The problem is not that people will stop relying on you because you rarely deliver on your promises.
The problem is not that your productivity is going to decrease because you are juggling too many things.
The problem is not that your dear ones will no longer seek out your company and your help because you are never truly there.
When you do not put boundaries, when you equate busyness with status, when you take the shortcut of being on top of it all, the real problem is that you have lost sight of what is important to you.
And if you have lost that, how are you going to achieve it?
There are always two lines. The one that got us here, and the one that will take us further ahead.
We tend to think less about the former and more about the latter. The future is always front and center: it’s the place of dreams, of ambitions, of possibilities. But it is also the place where something is always missing, as nobody looks at tomorrow saying: I want it to be just like today.
Being able to appreciate the past, to grasp the progress, to find the foundations, is just as important as having a strong purpose. It actually helps to shape a more solid purpose.
The two lines are not in competition, you don’t have to choose one over the other.
You have to find the right balance.
You've got this 