Chaos Tamer
As a long-time executive assistant and project coordinator, I continually search for ways to eek the most out of my time. This is my collection of tips and tools to master your time.
With great ease, I get sucked into random distractions. This frustrates me no end. Actually, the worst past of the feeling isn’t due to the lingering tasks. I end up feeling distracted, fragmented and worn; I hate that sensation. I love the feeling of moving forward, accomplishing goals with a direction and focus.
Of course, I adore helping people, especially those I care about. The right balance, oh how I long for thee!
Thinking recently about Steven Covey’s notion of focusing in your sphere of influence. Work where you are, that’s how I internalize this. I’ve long thought of this simply in terms of effectiveness. Actually, this is far deeper. What’s critical always lies within this sphere. One must complete the critical, our all else fails. We must hold our attention within. By managing within ourselves, the inner elements of our lives, other pieces come into play. When the core gets neglected, there is either fear of impending collapse, or the consequences of such collapse. Breaking free requires focus on the deepest, richest inner, most critical elements. Only upon mastering these, can other pieces of life become richer, deeper.
Losing myself in busyness is much too easy. Over the years, I’ve developed expertise in productivity and maximising work. I get so very much done, do meant todos checked off, but then feel like I’ve done nothing at all. This brings about a sense of emptiness. Losing sight of my “why” is the root. When my tasks are simply the responses to stimulus, not connected to adding value, I fall into this funk. For there’s no value. Remembering why we want, what the things are that we value counters that. Hence, why that planning and thinking time is so critical. Sadly, it’s so easy to get caught up in the cult of busy and devalue planning. And we end up miserable and morose. So, more planning and thoughtfulness in my life. There!
It’s frustrating to get lost in the tyrannical distraction of NOW. Quickly one is lost to simple, mindless reaction, weaving to and fro, accomplishing little to nothing; even though the day was full, laden with busy. The result of losing focus.
When priorities get lost by attending too much to the blizzard of demand, emptiness wins. We’re active, yet no progress made since “what matters” was left undone.
One must slow down, consider the value of each task before you act. At least get the priority work done first, the stuff that moves you forward. Even better, more powerful; learn the value of “no”. Decline to take energy away from your priorities. Doing more by doing less. Focus your energy for energy isn’t limitless.
Last week I was listening to John Richards of KEXP interview Brett Morgen, creator of Montage of Heck, the new movie about Kurt Cobain. There was a line which struck me: “are you prepared for luck?”
Powerful words. I want to incorporate them deeply into my life. They capture a core belief: our ability to take control of our lives. That we are empowered to affect change, to have a positive impact on the world. I deeply believe luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation. Thus, preparation is critical. It’s what we control. It’s how we bring change into being.
My challenge: to reach past my tendency to fret and worry, focusing instead on preparing for opportunity. To see the potential in life and continuously grow towards that light. Hence, the new name.
One of my morning tasks: sorting email. Yeah, the same as zillions of other earthlings. My team are Gmail users, so here’s a quick trick I use to speed up my morning. Plug the following into the search bar: in:inbox has:nouserlabels.
This pulls up everything that’s not been labeled yet. I use labels to help prioritize. Plus, one everything is labeled, it’s easy to pull up the whole thread and then archive the redundant messages. I prefer getting all the responses together in one email. Trying to minimize data scatter. Another one I use: in:inbox is:unread. Pulls up all your unread messages. Of secondary value to the first, though.
I check my spam folder >= daily, but I don’t scroll down to the spam tag. In the same box, just type “in:spam”, and it pops up fast.
Was just told about a real estate agent who regularly dumps files on their admin, without any explanation or discussion, because they’re “so busy”. They’ll just figure it out. Ugh! If you’re “so busy”, then you really need to take the minute or two it takes to give an explanation of the file, or task you’ve dropped onto your staff. Expecting folks to just “figure it out” is a near guarantee for re-doing/un-doing work, which is duplicative and wasteful (which should be obvious). Reminds me of one of my father’s adages: “you might think you’re too busy to do it right, but you won’t be too busy to do it again”. Slow down, folks; take the time to set your staff, and, thus, yourself, up for success.
It’s so easy to succumb to this desire: be something, something important, impactful, powerful. Chasing after an ideal “should be”, losing sight of who you are; cruel phantoms. So easily we get pulled into career/family/cultural expectations, that when we lose sight of ourselves, we don’t easily see the path back. That’s assuming there is a path “back”. I expect, for many of us, this is a path forward; new direction, new experience. Often, the path of self-discovery and self-acceptance is a journey of deep creativity; true exploration. A journey not started in youth, rather born out of regret and emptiness.
Thought of the day: It’s preferable to learn from the mistakes of others than to make them yourself. The whole purpose of an event like Family Reunion, and education as a whole, is to pre-learn the mistakes great minds have made, and avoid the pain and costs they incurred. Really, someone taking the time to explain anything they’ve learned is a gloriously generous gift. I’ve long known that, but have really deepened my appreciation for those that generosity.