Unessential Tasks Still Need to Get Done
Right now, one of my biggest challenges is having too many things to do.
I totally get that it would be ideal to be an Essentialist and only focus on the most important things so that I can realize the goals I've set for myself. My goodness, that would be wonderful.
But if you're only focusing on the most amazingly important things, where do you put all the rest of the stuff?
- The old baby clothes that are filling up the back of my car need to get taken to Goodwill.
- I need to get a present for a birthday party my son is going to next week.
- I need to put away the baskets full of clean laundry that I can't seem to get to.
- I need to schedule my dog to get groomed.
- I need to cancel a software trial that I don't want to get billed for.
There are about 30 other things on this week's list like this. They're certainly not "essential" but they also very much need to get done. And they take away time from the things that matter.
So I struggle with finding the balance. In my fantasy world, once I clearly defined my goals and core values, I could just eliminate everything else so that I could make consistently huge strides towards those goals. But of course, that's not realistic. And it seems like the list of piddly tasks is never-ending. And it often makes me feel a bit like I'm drowning.
The good news is, I'm good at keeping all those little things organized so they're not just bouncing around like ping-pong balls in my head. The bad news is, there are SO MANY OF THEM, that they still feel like they occupy too much space in my mind.
Some Likely Truths:
- Some of the tasks I have decided must be done really could be eliminated.
- I may be unwilling to eliminate some of the tasks which really could/should be.
- There will always be outlier tasks on my to-do list and I need to figure out a way co-exist peacefully with them.
So now what?
I think I'm going to start digging into this by making the distinction between essential, non-essential but necessary, and non-essential and UNnecessary tasks in my BuJo. (Pretty sure color-coding will need to be involved.) Perhaps in becoming more aware of which category the tasks falls under, I will begin to find ways to manage my tasks a bit better.
I know I'm not alone in this problem. It seems like everyone I talk to feels overwhelmed. My hope is that I can share some actionable strategies for dealing with this as a result of my own experimentation. Wish me luck!