Managing the ADD of Everyday Life

How to handle distractions, overwhelm, and procrastination and still get somewhere.

 

Do you have days that just seem to fly by, full of activity, and you feel as if you have gotten nothing done? Life happens at an increasingly complex and rapid pace. You would be unusual if you weren’t paying attention to multiple streams of information, internal conversation, relationships, work, schedule, decisions, and more. Keeping track of our goals, having a sense of progress, may seem out of reach. 
 
As it turns out, knowing your outcome is a saving grace when living in an interrupt-driven world. Sure, we can recognize that uninterrupted quiet time is best for challenging work or creative invention. When we don’t have that, or when we have just too many things competing for that time – and when life throws us extra stuff that has to be integrated (i.e., IRS Audit, parent care, child care, house move or remodel, refinance, buy a car) – it can be downright discouraging. 

Here’s a ray of light to help us deal with the overload. Sure, the 20 things on the to-do list may be there longer than we had anticipated. Just the same, if we ask ourselves three outcome questions once in a while, and put attention on them just long enough to anchor the desired result that we want, our wandering activity path will still bring us closer to where we want to go.

On top of having an internal gyroscope set on our desired outcomes, another benefit of that momentary attention on a specific goal is that we can look back and quell our picky voices by seeing how far we have come on our path, even if we don't have hours of focused time to work on it.


I heard a story as a child about two people who each had the task of digging a hole. I can still see in my mind’s eye the image of a big hole and a big pile of dirt. One of the people walked by every day and took a shovelful of dirt out of the hole. The other guy waited until the last minute and had to work very hard to catch up. The one was whistling and the other was panting. I took in the lesson that tasks can be easy if done bit by bit.  

I may not be able to finish all that I want to do today, and still I can make progress – if I have thought about my goal.

Alan Lakein, one of the classic time management gurus, called this the “Swiss Cheese Method” of carving out manageable chunks of the overwhelming task. It feels great to come back and finish something that is mostly done already. 

 

If you have something that is hanging over your head (may I mention that it is time to get your taxes together?), take a moment to focus on it and ask yourself the three outcome questions:

What do I want to accomplish?
What will that get me (and others)?
What will I see, hear, and feel or do that will convince me it is completed?

Step into the experience as if you have just finished the job. See what you’ll see, hear what you’ll hear, and feel the effects of doing it. 

Now let that go and do one little task that leads toward the result. 
When your day splays out in unplanned directions, those little tasks can turn wasted time into steps forward.  

The fast pace and multiple distractions are not going to abate any time soon. We make a mistake when we put off tasks until we have “enough time.” Then we rush like crazy or miss the deadline. 

OK, enough. Go ask yourself the questions and do that little task!

Now and the Future

It’s easy to see that what we do today is creating our future. How else will we get where we want to go?

Since the only time we can take action is now, everything is really about the immediate moment.

We can take action in the present and have a sense, however clear or hazy, of where we want to go. The more we sense that today’s actions are leading toward a future we want, the more creative and productive we feel.

Radio host and psychic Hollis Polk recently pointed out a useful distinction in thinking about the present and the future. She said that sometimes we have a long-term goal that conflicts with our short-term reality. There may be times that NOT taking a step is a better choice, when other priorities are more important.

Wow. Do you, like me, criticize yourself for not achieving all your goals at once? I value my strategy of taking small steps toward major goals, and being consistent, so that I will reach the end. I have been revising our book, Smart Work, it seems for a long time now.

The most recent step has been to ask for feedback from readers. While that happens, I am not working on the book as consistently as I was. In the short term, this allows me to get some other projects under way. It also gives me a chance to return to editing the book with new perspective. I hope the product will be much improved.

With Hollis’s suggestion of separating the long-term goal and the immediate priorities, it’s easier to hush the internal nagging. In the bigger picture, progress is being made.

There are plenty of things I can do today that also lead to my long-term goals. One of them is to bring more clarity to what else I want to have in play when the book comes out.

Most readers of this column will recognize that inner push to achieve that can get us overly focused on a particular outcome. Even if I am not procrastinating, there is more to do than I have time for. It can feel like constant pressure. None of my tasks is more fun or comes out better because I am under pressure.

If I stop to breathe, feel gratitude in the present moment, and reflect on the bigger picture of who I am and what I want to do, I am getting somewhere too.

Remember that the connection between the short-term and the long-term does not have to be linear.
Enjoy your summer!