The time between Christmas and New Year was always one of my favourite times in the office. There were few people around, travelling to and from work was always easy and quick with fewer passengers, my phone didn’t ring off the hook as it often did at other times of the year, I had fewer meetings to attend, and I was able to do my yearly clear-out and catch up. How wonderful it always felt to once again see the bottom of my in-tray and a completely demolished filing pile.
But not for long. Before the day was out, there’d be something else in the tray. These days, the email Inbox is much the same. No sooner have I handled it all, another email pops in. Is there a solution to this?
I figure that we never get it done. The only way to have a completely and permanently empty in-tray or Inbox is to opt out completely. A bit like life really – life just keeps on happening, as long as we haven’t opted out (and I don’t know about you, but I’m not yet ready to opt-out of life even if I do get to come back again!)
So the real questions are:
- Can you be OK with knowing that you never get it done and that the objective is to enjoy the process?
- What can you opt-out of in relation to those things that take up enormous amounts of your time yet still keep your finger on the pulse?
It’s all an evolving process. In my old role, we put in a new accounting system, but it didn’t save us the manpower it was supposed to. Instead, we were able to analyse the figures better, ask better questions and then do more analysis and have better explanations. We never got it done.
When we hit the targets, we celebrated. Then we set new ones to take us even higher. We never got that “done” either.
So the bottom-line is how much would you reduce your stress by finding your own answers to the questions above? And how much more enjoyable would your life be – whether at work or at home – if you just relaxed about getting the important things done but not necessarily everything, and enjoyed the process of getting there more than you’re doing right now?
Make your choices good ones, and just think how your results will change.
We are responsible for our experience
- Be OK about not getting everything done. Just know what is important and make sure that those are done.
- Look at everything on your to-do list with a fresh eye. Ask yourself, “What if I didn’t do this at all?” It doesn’t necessarily mean that it never gets done at all….if it can’t do with ditching, you might just be able to delegate it.
- Consider every meeting you say yes to. Ask yourself, “What if I opted out of this meeting? How can I be more of more value by not attending?”
By the time we’ve made it, we’ve had it – Malcolm Forbes
Written by Veronica Lim, Executive Coach. Veronica works with professional and business women to take back control of their lives and to live freer, easier and richer. Check out her websites at
www.innerthinking.com and www.millionairethinking.com
