Do You Ever Feel Like You Can't Get Anything Done?
For months I've had a few big ideas rolling around in my head. The kind of big that makes me want to jump up and get to work on them. But day after day and week after week I get a fraction accomplished on each idea. Take this week for example, we were out of town Sunday and Monday for a wedding. Come Tuesday I was ready to get in the office to film the videos, write, and make calls. By the end of the day I was still sitting at my desk full of motivation and inspiration yet spinning my wheels on getting anything done.
The stuck phase of not moving is probably the most difficult rut to be in. All you want is momentum to propel you forward, yet you look around and today looks just like yesterday. The idea is still swirling in your head but that is the only place it exists because you can't seem to get anywhere in the physical plane.
So you write another to-do list for tomorrow, this time with more focused determination not to let the day get away from you. You get up from your desk (or from the idea, metaphorically speaking) and you walk away. Tomorrow is a new day and you will start again.
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How many times have you done this? More times that I want to admit, personally.
Let's continue the scenario.
Tomorrow comes and you get up with all that motivation from the day before. You pour your cup of coffee, you read a few pages in your favorite book, you check in on social media to see what the world has been up to since you went to bed, and then you head to your desk.
The time is now - the day is today!
The phone rings. Or the doorbell. Or there is a text from a neighbor/mom/friend/husband. Something needs attention.
You think, "if I just handle this now, then I can clear my head and get to it."
Then something else comes up that needs attention or you spend an hour on the phone gabbing with a friend because that feels nice and friendships are important.
Your stomach starts to grumble and you realize you haven't eaten a single bite. To the kitchen you march, open the refrigerator and survey the contents. "Well in order to eat something, I'll need to cook it because so-and-so took the leftovers."
As lunch is cooking, you start to unload the dishwasher from the night before. A slight smile spreads across your face because you are feeling so productive.
Lunch is ready and you sit down to eat. As you are taking the dishes back to the kitchen you remember that there was a load of laundry in the washer. Up you go to transfer it to the dryer. "Crap, there were clothes in the dryer already? Well I'll go ahead and fold them and put them up."
Tick tock. Tick tock. Time to get the kids from school. And just like that, another day is squandered away. Another wasted opportunity to get things done.
How many times have you been here?
Before we can move on, we MUST first take responsibility. For our actions and our choices that led to another squandered day. None of us set out to be wasteful, but yet it is sobering how often we become wasteful of our resources - most specifically our time.
No one forced us to answer the phone when our friend called, or unload the dishwasher, or fold the clothes. It may have been nice or felt nice to do those things, but the urgency of them was pretty low. Put another way, they could have waited.
Second, we must stop waiting to find the perfect time or the right time to get started. Instead of chipping away at our ideas little by little, we want to clear the calendar for a week and dive right in!
I call this the rabbit hole syndrome. We want to jump down our rabbit hole and get the whole thing done in one fell swoop. Why do we want to do this? Because picking it up and putting it down and picking it up again is.so.annoying. It just feels slowwwww.
If I have two hours today and one hour tomorrow, then I better claim it NOW and decide that I won't let anyone (talkative friend) or anything (laundry) steal it from me. In other words, I'm going to say NO to everything that isn't my idea. At least for the predetermined time I have allotted.
Your yes and your no are more valuable than your dollar. We wake up every day rich in time, yet we waste it away because we know that tomorrow our time bank account will be filled again. "If I don't get to it today, then I'll do it tomorrow", meanwhile an entire year passes with little to no movement from the status quo.
Take responsibility.
Stop waiting for a large chunk of time.
Give out a bunch of no's over a bunch of yes's so you can get on it with already.
PRO TIP: use your calendar to plan! Our calendar is the connector. Block out time. Set up boundaries. If you don't have the time to accommodate a request because it interferes with your idea time, then SAY NO.
Visually create your day in the exact way that you want to experience it! Get to work on that beautiful idea and tell everyone else they will have to wait.