Is this really realistic?
It is Monday, the start of another new week. Last week I talked to you about motivation, how to make it and where to find it. This week I want to talk to you about the one of the biggest threats to motivation - unrealistic expectations.
Let’s set the scene a little, some of this may ring true to you and some it might not but for sure there is a lesson to be learned.
It is Monday morning, you are an incredibly busy person with huge ambitions, big goals, lot’s to do and not that much free time. You know that the only way to achieve things you want to achieve is by being organised, meticulous and precious with your time. You have read every book and article on productivity, you have written your to do lists, planned your diary and you sit down to execute the plan and you feel overwhelmed. You look at your to do list, that is bigger than you realised, and decide tick off some easy tasks first, you know the ones - send email to x, respond yes to meeting request, request annual leave, file expenses claims. You’ve ticked off those tasks, there’s nothing more satisfying than ticking off a task, and that to do list is looking a little smaller but yet more intimidating at the same time. All that is left is the real work and there is a lot of it. You decide it’s time for coffee break before you set about cracking on with the work that needs to be done. Coffee in hand it’s time to do the work and still you don’t know where to start. The phone starts to ring and although you know how much work you have to do you answer it anyway, just incase it is something important. After about 60 seconds you realise it isn’t important but you decide to be polite and continue the chat anyway, I mean it has been 2 whole days since you spoke to this person and a catch up is needed. After 30 minutes you hang up the phone and decide now is the time to do the real work. Oh look it’s almost lunchtime maybe you should take an early lunch because there is no point starting something now only to stop again in 30 minutes. Lunch is out of the way and now it really really is time to do the real work, but you don’t know how. You have so much to do you can’t possibly decide where to start. The list is overwhelming and the weight of the workload ahead feels pretty heavy. It’s stressful, it’s stifling and it’s not going to do itself.
Any of that sound familiar?
Now I am not saying that it isn’t a good idea to have a plan, because planning certainly is required if we want to be successful but what if you planned less? When we create a plan we are making a commitment to ourselves that we are going to do the work to bring that plan to life. The commitments we make to ourselves are the most important so what is the point in committing to something you know you will never be able to achieve?
Some useful questions to ask yourself when creating a workload plan/to do list:
When does this need to be completed by?
Am I the only person responsible for this task?
Could I outsource or delegate?
Do I know what the first step is to complete this task?
What is the most important thing to me and my goals right now?
Does my plan allow for self care and downtime?
How long will each task on this list take? (BE REALISTIC)
When we have big goals and dreams they can feel overwhelming. The key is to focus only on the next step ahead rather than the goal as a whole. A mountain is only climbed on step at a time, and it is the same when creating a plan to achieve your goals. If we over plan our time or think to far ahead it can overwhelm us and in some cases this can lead to little or no action. Prioritise based on what is most important for you to achieve the next step, and then you can look at the next step after that, and so it goes.
