Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Have you ever had one of those days where you look at what’s on your list of things to do and you quite simply feel a little overwhelmed? I got an email from my friend Ben Robinson recently in which it sounded like he just didn’t have it in him to get to ‘The Pile’ as I like to call it.
Now typically I face my largest ‘Piles’ when I just get back from a trip and have that stack of stuff sitting on my desk that’s accumulated while I’ve been away along with the stuff that I brought home with me that needs to be dealt with as part of the clean-up/tidy-up from what ever trip I was just on. Sometimes (like at the moment for example) I’m still tidying up from trips and gigs that were completed weeks ago, but I’ve been so busy that I just haven’t gotten to the remaining loose ends yet.
It can be a bit daunting when you stare at an overwhelming pile of ‘to-dos’ with out any real clue where to begin, and this can often lead you to procrastinate and finding just about anything else that can be done instead of just starting something. Trust me, I’m well aware of this syndrome.
In the end however, it’s been my experience that the hardest part of the process is getting started. Once things have begun, choices and decision make themselves apparent. Even if it means starting, then going back and restarting to do things in a better way, it’s important just to take those first few steps towards the task at hand so that you don’t continually stall what ever project it is from any chance of becoming a reality.
This post is a pretty real example of the fact that I’m guilty of putting stuff off myself… I’ve spent the better part of the day trying to get to this post. I typically try to have blog posts go live at 12:01 am each morning and here it is nearly 2:00 pm and I’m still writing it. Doh!
If you find yourself with a desk full of projects or a series of goals that your trying to achieve that somehow seems beyond reach, stop for a moment. Re-prioritize things to determine which one thing you should work on first, then put everything else aside and get to work on that one thing. Chances are you’ll get through it more quickly than you first imagined and there’ll be one less thing in ‘The Pile’ taunting you. Get to the end of one thing at a time until gradually you wrestle ‘The Pile’ into submission and the clutter is replaced with clarity.
Onward and upward!
