Craig Playstead finds these times challenging. His solution? Grow a pair, prioritize, and knuckle down.
I was one day away from putting my writing on hold for a while. It’s what I do, but life has been a challenge lately. I haven’t felt like I was in the space to write anything helpful, funny or compelling enough that demanded anyone taking their valuable time to read.
Then I had a beer with someone who — without really knowing, told me (and I quote) to “get off my f-ing ass and write something.”
Message received.
It’s been a month since I’ve written anything of substance, although I have about 70, half written articles. Yes, 70. And that’s low for me. There are a few gems in there so I need get my head together and focus a little.
The problem is that I can’t focus.
It doesn’t matter if I’m at home or work, I get interrupted constantly. Even when I’m home by myself … it’s weird. Something always pulls me away. The sad thing is that I’m partly to blame.
Like most men who have enormous responsibilities I have so many “High Priority” things on my to-do list each day that it’s tough to focus on any one thing. And in my defense, this is probably the only time in my life I’ve had this many important things to get done every day. These aren’t things like “pick up milk” they’re more like, “find a place for you and your kids to live.” If I actually stopped and thought about it, the list would be daunting. But you can’t do that when things are overwhelming you. You have to chip away, piece by piece.
This is not a good place to be. Ever. I’m not the only one who’s overwhelmed on a daily basis — I see it happening to men everywhere. But the reality is that it’s mostly with crap that doesn’t matter. It’s usually a combination of meaningless tasks created by your boss, family and noise invented by you. When you’re constantly busy, you tend to fill your day with stuff because you’re used to it. You get addicted to the chaos, and it’s a recipe for disaster. I’ve been doing the same thing for years. And it has to stop.
So what do you do to get through this situation? Well, you prioritize and grow a pair by learning to say “no.” To make sure I get the most important things done daily I keep going back to this great rule I found on the brilliant Penelope Trunk’s blog:
One thing at a time.
Most important thing first.
Start now.
It works.
—Photo Flickr/pellesten