The Unending game of catch-up
Every morning I wake up and I’m already behind.
I roll out of bed and I’m embroiled in an adrenaline-infused game of catch-up, trying to beat the amorphous goal of “getting everything done.” And I can never quite seem to win.
It’s honestly pretty exhausting, and it doesn’t leave a lot of space to enjoy the day, be present, or be strategic in how I’m spending my time and energy.
Some days are more frenetic than others, depending on my perceived amount of things that need to get done. But ironically, the days where I’m barreling through the hours at the most breakneck pace, task-switching as fast as my squirrel-brain can, are the days that I feel like I get the least done (and where I objectively DO get the least amount done).
There are a ton of productivity books out there, and I’ve read a good amount of them. Lots of theorems, strategies and nifty little tidbits on how to be more productive or manage your time better. It feels helpful in the moment, but once I’ve saturated my already saturated brain with more information on how to do things “better,” I find that it only takes a day or two for me to forget those fancy new tools and go back to my defaults.
So what the heck is the solution?
Honestly, I can’t say that I’ve found a complete solution. If I had, I’d be a freaking millionaire, because I know that I’m not alone in my struggle to try and get things done. But there are 2 reframes that I’ve found most helpful for me in course-correcting from my default approach of “productivity.” Both come from books.
The first is from the excellent book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. The central premise is that there literally is no way that you can get everything done. Period. So the sooner you can accept the reality of your LIMITED time, the sooner you can use that time for things that really matter. It’s obvious, really, but actually a complete game-changer. There’s a certain measure of peace, solace, and clarity that come with that acceptance of opportunity costs and limitations.
The second idea is a natural extension of the first, although it’s from another book called Essentialism by Greg McKeown. And it’s that “by investing in fewer things we have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter most. The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead it requires us to grapple with real trade-offs and make tough decisions.”
This stuff is simple but so so good. Easier said than done, though. So what I’ve done to implement it are a few things:
Write down the #1 most important thing I need to do each day. That way, I know that the TOP priority for my day, the thing that’s going to move the needle the most, is getting done. And whatever else I get to is an added bonus. The things I don’t get done, can be done another day, or just weren’t important enough to do in the first place.
Calendar blocking. I’ve experimented with this a lot, but I’ve learned the hard way too many times that if I don’t put something in the calendar, it’s not getting done. So every night, I pre-block my calendar for the next day.
Honestly, that’s it. There are lots of other tools, but like I’ve said, if I add too many more, they just end up either forgotten or unused. Doing these 2 things keeps my “productivity strategy” simple, and most other things fall into place around it. It’s not a total fix-all, but it comes pretty damn close for my purposes.
