Do you feel like stuff enters your space so quickly that you don't even have time to notice what you have? Is your calendar so stuffed with tasks and to-do's that you barely have time to breathe? Maybe you can identify with the main character in James Scott Bell's book No Legal Grounds, "Usually he'd jolt awake the night before a trial. This felt different, like he was the conductor of not just one runaway train, but several. He was simultaneously outside the trains and inside, and he could only ride in one for a few moments before shooting to another. He couldn't get his hands on any controls." Sound familiar?
If we want to live in a NOW (newly organized way) this year, we have to put the brakes on the trains! First, let's identify the trains. Here are a few suggestions:
- Too many items in your home.
- Too many items without a "home" in your office.
- More tasks than available timeslots on your calendar.
- People pulling you in many different directions, some of them in ways you want to go, but others in routes you would rather not take.
Personally, I get tired just thinking about having to leap between trains and trying to be the conductor of each! I envision at least one of these trains crashing and not leaving any survivors.
Let's see what we can do to slow down the train on one of the tracks. You get to choose which train. My example will be about the plethora of tasks pulling at you. I urge you to say at least one "no" for every "yes". If someone asks you to do something, you can only agree if you plan to remove something else from your schedule. If your calendar is already busting at the seams, you can't just add another tasks and hope for the miracle of a 25th hour in your day. To fit in a new task, you must eliminate a current one. Be extra bold and delete two current tasks for every new one! Bottom-line, if you always add and never subtract, your train will continue to pick up speed and will eventually crash.
Now I want you to identify your trains. Next, choose which one you want to work on first. Finally, consider strategies to get the train back on track. Take the next 30 days and work on this one train. Once you can manage this train better, then it may be time to work on a second one.
Remember, your NOW will only provide organization with lasting results™ if you work on it one step at a time!
Search
