I first noticed there was something wrong with me when I went out to get in my car. The garage door was open. I'd left it that way because when I got home from walking the dogs, I suddenly remembered something I was supposed to have done, but hadn't. I swore like a sailor and raced up the stairs. Leaving the garage door wide open. For a couple of hours.
This isn't supposed to happen to me. I'm The Productivity Maven. The chick with everything under control. Yeah. Right.
The second hint that someone else was walking around in my body was when I showed up for a meeting and the third person, the really important one, wasn't there. Because I forgot to hit "reply all." Nice. Productivity Maven, where the hell are you when I need you?
Truth is, this is a full week with lots of stuff packed in. Who said yes to all those things? Um…that would be me. Even Productivity Maven is vulnerable overwhelm, overload, overcommitment. And yes, I can hear my mom saying, "I told you you were working too hard!"
I made a list. Yes, when things are really desperate, simple tools are best. Pencil. Paper. Essentials–what are they? I let myself get really stupid, really simple minded: walk the dogs, eat lunch, each and every appointment. What else can I do? I seemed to get myself back a little, felt a little more in my own body again, a little less like a zombie. Oh, and the almond cream croissant and strong coffee helped, too.
What about you? How do you bring yourself back from zombieland?
You know that little notebook I carry around, nerd-like? Yep, make a list. Everything that you gotta do, when and where you’re going to do it. Put a date on it, so you know when you be. Don’t try to do more than a day or so this way, you can’t predict that far.
That seems to get me back to ground and headed in the right direction.
-robertw
I empty my head into a list but I don’t stop there. I number the list by level of resistance I feel to each item. I find the thing on that list that is giving me the most resistance and I either complete it or find the next physical action that takes the next reasonable amount of time I have to do bring it towards completion and I do it even if that action is just a journal entry.
Hi Robert, Hi Brian,
The power of the list! Thanks for the great feedback!
Have a great weekend,
Tara