When you look at your never-ending to-dos, projects, and commitments, do you feel a little defeated?
Do you wonder how you’ll find the time to get it all done?
Do you even know where to begin?
And no matter how much you’ve accomplished you’re certain you’ll never get caught up.
We’ve all been there.
I haven’t met anyone that isn’t overloaded, overcommitted, and overwhelmed.
While I can’t help you reduce the amount of stuff on your list (well, that’s probably another article), I can give you a tip to help reduce that overwhelming feeling you get whenever you do look at a task, or a project or any other commitment you’ve made so that you can take some forward motion on it.
Ask yourself …
What’s the very next physical action on this? How do you eat an apple? One bite at a time, right? So, no matter what size a task or a project is, it can be broken down into small and doable bites.
Figure out what the next small action is and then do it!
Then figure out the next small action after that and do that one. And so on and so on …
The idea here is that you hold the end goal in view but you focus on the next small action step that will move you towards your end goal.
Here’s how it works …
Step 1: select something important you want to get done.
Step 2: make a mini list of next actions – no need to get fancy, just jot down simple bite-sized actions.
Step 3: start doing those next actions – one at a time.
Step 4: check stuff off as you get it done and celebrate every one of them.
Step 5: get more of your stuff done!!
Now you can see the end coming to a close rather than staring down that task or project or commitment and feeling … lost.
The added advantage of this is that the next time you come back to it, you’ll know exactly what’s been done and what needs to be done next. No lost time recalibrating and reviewing it – you can just pick up where you last left off and continue on your merry way.
It’s as simple as that.
Ask what’s next? Get stuff done.
Now, get on with your day!
