Getting Through it

Face the truth.

You are not going to be done by the day you die.

(My gravestone will read “I was hoping for a good long rest”).

There is just so much to do each day, that even were we to get at it ten hours a day seven days a week, we’d still not get it done. And we’d still be behind on our taxes.

On top of that there are the hours spent trying to get to sleep worrying about what didn’t happen today – a cheque didn’t arrive, we didn’t send the email we promised, we failed to …

Here’s a Thought

Plan on going to bed tonight with a sense of achievement.

Each day pick, as your day’s goal, one doable, measurable, rewardable task. Then treat yourself as an employee.

Pick one thing on your list that will take about one hour; certainly less than two hours, and then do it to the exclusion of everything else.

You are not going to waste the day doing it; you are going to do it and when it is done you’re going to frame it as a certificate of achievement, thank yourself as you would an employee, and reward yourself with something tangible.

I don’t care what the reward is; walk across the street and buy a slab of Brie for all I care.

I don’t care what the task is; clean the bathroom, bottle that pureed ginger, remove everything off the top of the second desk; make notes about the new course.

Find ONE THING that you know you can complete this morning, then put on the blinkers.

• Unplug the phone if you can (*).
• Turn off the monitor if you have to.

You will go to bed tonight with a feeling of well-being.

(*) I discovered late last year that the world rotates every 24 hours whether or not my phone is plugged in!