A trick for making life manageable
Those of you who have come to know me through my writings on Silver & Grace, and my photographs on Facebook, have probably figured out that I am an uber creative person. So, for that matter, is Mr. Very Right.
This is actually a problem.
“What?”, you squeak, thinking you didn’t read that right. “Creativity is a problem?”
No, being creative is not a problem. It is a very good thing. However, being uber creative is a problem. Especially when two people in the family are creative.
Ideas are bouncing off the walls. Ping. There goes another. Pop. Another light bulb goes on.
And this, my friends, can be very overwhelming. After all, there is only so much time in a day, week, month and year.
Let me give you a sampling of what Mr. Very Right and I collectively and individually want to work on:
- Develop a workshop on intuition
- Keep photojournal up to date
- Create an online magazine
- Start a business building rustic furniture
- Open a Vintage Car Club
- Open a store and workshops
- Create a corporate team building program
- Design necklaces
- Renovate just about every room in our house … oh, and the outside!
Pretty wild list, eh? Each idea with its own myriad of tasks.
This is where the problem arises. We get so overwhelmed with our ideas and how much work each is, we actually get depressed and discombobulated. Then nothing gets done!
This week, I took a lesson from work. We are using a software development appoach called SCRUM. We don’t need to get into exactly what SCRUM is, because Mr. Very Right and I are not developing software, thank goodness. I worry about that all day; I don’t need to worry about it at home. However, the point of SCRUM is to list all the work to be done, prioritize it, then break it down into manageable pieces.
Everything gets written on stickies which are then put on a wall in the following categories:
- Backlog – work not even being considered yet
- Prioritized – the top priority pieces of work
- Started – tasks for each piece of work that are started
- Complete – tasks that are all done
You move the stickies from one category to the next. As a very visual person, this is a very satisfying process for me. So, this week, I took a wall of my study and put pretty coloured stickies on it.
In my backlog are ideas that are exactly that, simply ideas. This means they are captured for posterity, but I can stop thinking about them.
Then I broke the other ideas down into their tasks, which were filed under a stickie called Needs To Happen. From there, I moved a couple of tasks to Started, because they are underway. Heck, I even moved one to completed!
All of a sudden, I was no longer depressed. Sure, there are still a lot of ideas, but I am no longer focused on those. I am just looking at the tasks that I can reasonably take on to move a couple of ideas forward. Not so overwhelming after all.
The stickie approach does have some disadvantages. First, you need wall space away from breezes that knock the stickies off the wall, and away from practical jokers who move your stickies around. Two, it is not that pretty having stickies all over your wall no matter how pretty the colours. Since I have a private study, my stickies are safe, and I am willing to live with a technocolour wall.
Granted, this approach may not be for you, but really, the moral of my story is:
When life gets overwhelming, break it down into manageable tasks Work on the tasks you can, and forget about the rest. You will get to those later, after you have had the satisfaction of completing the first bunch.
Have your say:
When you life gets overwhelming, how do you manage to get back on track?
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Clear your mind to focus on the present – this is a very important concept that we see in lots of places (Getting Things Done, Zen Habits, and so forth) – and it works.
I have developed my own system that suits my needs, it kind of resembles your sticky note method but it is electronic – because brightly coloured sticky notes in a house with four young children would tend to get “rearranged” all the time and mess me up!
Plus the electronic version (at least the way that I store it) is available anywhere I have a computer. Since I try to focus on 1-3 tasks a day, if I absolutely do not have access to the files, I will still have picked out a few things to do that day. If I think of anything else when I’m offline, I do a “brain dump” to paper and get back to business.
It works!!!
Hey, I just started using post-it notes too. But I don’t have the wall space or a bulletin board so I stick them on pages in a binder. Those are for business brainstorming though. It kinda makes it fun and I want to work with the process, so it’s no longer overwhelming. Making it fun is key, I think. My other STUFF gets written in my day-timer and what is not ticked off gets carried over to the next day.
So, you want to develop a workshop on intuition… sounds juicy!
@Brett – I am on a computer all day long reacting to every email and invite reminder that someone else sends me. When I’m home, I don’t want to manage my life electronically. Hence the stickies. Besides, like I said I am visual … and tactile … so love the satisfaction of actually moving the stickies.
@Davina – ah, now pages in a binder would work too! My current study is temporary until renovations are complete. My new study/studio may not have the same type of wall space, in which case I’ll keep your idea in mind. Yes, actually the workshop is one of the ‘in the moment’ projects. A lot of the work has been done and I am launching in September. I’m very excited about it.
I understand that, I have heard many people say things like that (though it’s never been a concern for me, as I manage to deflect a lot of that where I work – amazing what you can do when you set boundaries for electronic interruption at work…)
May I make a suggestion for you, though – if this is truly important to you, I’d still recommend some kind of “digital backup” – as simple as taking a high-resolution photograph once every couple of days. You’d be surprised what a 7-8 MP camera can pick up and if you ever lose the wall (e.g. a fire or something – I hope not, but…) then at least you don’t lose your hard work.
You could also store said backup on (say) Gmail in case you’re travelling.
-Brett
The stickies are a great idea! You can get those ‘things’ out of your head and onto something physical so you dont need to worry about them whirring around in there any more
I’m off for a day-long yoga seminar to try to clear mine out. When I return, I shall be armed with stickies
@Joanna – yes, I think the biggest benefit for me is getting those things out of my head. They are there, they are tangible, now I can forget about them and focus on the ones I can do here and now. Enjoy your day long yoga!
I have a lot of these same tendencies, and learning how to edit down my priorities for any given day is a constant challenge. I work best keeping it VERY simple. I need a pad, pen and timer.(I do love my stickie notes) I have two lists – a big picture list for the week that usually only has one or two things on it. Then every morning before I blast off, check email, twitter, anything else – I spit out a quick “to do” list/schedule which includes “make doctor’s appointments,” “call school” etc… all the way to “brainstorm”, “write x number of words” that have to do with the points on the big picture.. The two keys are the lists, and the timer. I fail miserably for weeks at a time on all this! But when I make the effort it works often enough to help me move forward where I really want to!
@Margo – “I fail miserably for weeks at a time …” This made me laugh. Me too. I work so well when I have a system. My challenge is sticking to the system. Maybe I need a system for sticking to the system.