There’s Always Too Much To Do.
One of the key insights I have had over the years is that there will always be too much todo. The core problem has nothing to do with efficiency. In fact, it can actually be caused by efficiency!
The more efficient you are, the faster all the projects and initiatives in your life will be complete, and these will then inevitably lead you to new initiatives.
If you reply to emails faster, you simply receive more emails.
So what’s the solve here? How do we sidestep an infinite workload? Well, the first step is to get comfortable with the fact that you will never finish everything, and that you will never quite achieve even a fraction of what you want to achieve. You’ll live a much happier and more satisfied life if you can accept this simple fact.
The second step is to prioritize what is the most important thing. Because there is an infinite workload, it then becomes even more important to manage your time accordingly. There is an infinite number of ways that you could spend your time.
I’ll admit that I often get overwhelmed. I forget the basics, go into a slight panic, and then eventually, my frontal lobe starts working again, and I settle back down. I focus, I do what’s most important, fix the fires, and continue.
If I can go to sleep knowing that I am going to bed, a 1% better person than when I woke up in the morning, that’s a success.
