Life OVERLOAD (aka: operating in CHAOS)
Many of us have so many roles in life. We are moms, wives, friends, cooks, drivers, homework masters, some of us are also web designers, social media masters, party planners, small business owners, employees, etc. Life is constantly throwing things our way and many of us are just fighting to keep our heads above water. In order to get all of the things done that we have to each day, we often neglect ourselves. We create this functioning chaos and operate in HERO mode most of the time. We are often praised for being able to ‘tackle’ so much and come out ahead. Sometimes we start to believe that and pat ourselves on the back for getting the right stuff done each day.
What I learned this past weekend at the Franklin Covey – 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity Course is that if we are living like that – we are operating in Q1 mode. AND we are most likely on our way to BURN OUT. Q1 tasks are classified as urgent and important. Like many people I know, I get more done when I have more to do – so I procrastinate and pile up my days to where I just fly through them getting the ‘need to be done items’ complete. I learned that my lack of planning and allowing myself to schedule my ‘big rocks’ or priority items was throwing me into crisis mode, sometimes resulting in my priorities being lost altogether.
This weekend I had a chance to examine the roles I play – and focus in on 5 or 6 of the most important ones. I got to define them and tie goals to them. Then I worked on creating my master task list.
My biggest takeaway from the weekend was that with proper planning I can move from Q1 (urgent and important) into Q2 (non-urgent and important) and OWN MY TIME by being focused and productive.
What are the ways you cope or manage a busy life?
