- Do you sometimes feel that you’re juggling far too many activities and that something needs to change?
- Or perhaps you feel stressed or anxious but can’t quite work out why?
- Are you spending too much time fire-fighting and not enough time working proactively?
When we are trying to do too many things at once, the likelihood is that we’re not being as effective as we would like to be. And we may think that the answer is to keep working until we’re finished, however this is NOT usually the best plan.
Too many tabs open?
I have recently likened this to having too many tabs open on a computer…You may be able to relate to this feeling too?
When we have done enough for the day, we know. And if we pretend that we don’t know, our bodies will often inform us in one way or another. We may feel sleepy, hungry or thirsty; we may develop aches or pains or generally just feel exhausted yet determined to keep going regardless.
A valuable lesson I have learned…
In more recent years I have learned a very valuable lesson and this is to listen to my body far more, so that I am healthier and thus by default, more productive and fulfilled.
I like to plan my workload and plan for my fun and leisure activities too, however when something gets in the way of these plans it can make me feel as though I am functioning on auto-pilot i.e. I’m not really engaged with what I’m actually doing at that moment.
This isn’t a good feeling as I am unable to fully enjoy the situation. Therefore, action needs to be taken to prevent this.
If you too can relate to the above, here are some strategies and tips that I have found useful:
- Get clear on your FOCUS
- Choose the 3 most important tasks on your To Do List and get them done
- Do some lighter level tasks as a ‘reward’ for completing these
- Once you have actioned these, choose the next task and so on
- Say ‘no’ to the activities or people that demand your time at the last minute (which you probably hadn’t planned for) and which you feel unable to squeeze in
- Allow some time for distractions that you may want to say ‘yes’ to each day; this will enable you to feel calmer and less rushed, as distractions are inevitably going to happen:
- For example, if family or friends call upon your time unexpectedly, you may want to be included here even though you have a full day ahead, so your schedule needs to be flexible enough to cater for this
- Allow a realistic amount of time for each task to take, based on experience rather than optimistic guess work!
- When faced with any extra workload at short notice, adjust your expectations as a result of this, so that you do not feel overwhelmed or exhausted:
- Instead look further into the week or month and choose which of today’s activities can be delayed or delegated
- Realise that there WILL be time to catch up – we often need to give ourselves permission for things to take longer than originally anticipated, however things do generally work out for the best
Life would be less interesting if nothing ever stopped us from going about our business. It would also be disappointing if nothing was changing or new.
If, as I do, you like to be productive, you like to feel fulfilled and you love to have people around you who you love and hopefully love you too then we must allow ourselves to enjoy a flexible approach.
I hope that some of the tips above will help you to achieve a higher level of satisfaction in your life and help you to reduce the number of tabs you have open during your day.
Having too many tabs open dilutes your ability to do your work and to ensure you have time out for yourself regularly.
If you would like to keep on top of your ‘tabs open’ situation I am now running a brand new Online Wellbeing Group – if you would like to find out more please get in touch via [email protected]