At the beginning of the year, I made a change to the daily “To-Do” list. I started dividing it into two sections which I called: “Important and Urgent” and “Important but not Urgent.”
This change has had some benefits, which I’d hoped for. It keeps me on track better than simply brain dumping onto the page. It “forces” me to prioritize the tasks that I need to get done. I think it’s made me more organized, on the whole – when I follow it, which is not always the case. Guilty as charged.
It’s also had an unexpected drawback: There are times when the Important and Urgent list – which should be kept on the shorter side – can grow into a proper list all on it’s own.
When that happens, it can be a little overwhelming, and I find myself avoiding the list all together by undertaking seemingly Important/Urgent side-quests. The gods know that I am never more “Uselessly” productive than when I’m avoiding stuff that I should be doing.
So I needed a reset, today in particular. Counterintuitively, I did that by stepping away from the lists and taking a look at the larger picture. It provided me with a needed change in perspective to where I could stop seeing all of the individual things clamoring for my attention all at once, and see the things that needed more immediate attention. Even within the Important and Urgent list, there’s a sliding scale. You just need to be far enough away to see it.
So I’m off to get some stuff done, because “Time for yourself” is also on that list, and I want to make sure that’s one I can definitely check off for today.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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