Why Do I Never Get Anything Done?

HELLO everyone, I’m glad to see you back here today.  My name is Linda Frame.  I’m here today with your:  “Daily Adversity Support” ……

Authors Note: For my background information, please visit my Profiles on Facebook and Linkedin.

Welcome, here we go with today’s thoughts about adversities.  Whether you call them challenges, hurdles, set backs, road blocks or bumps in the road, let’s talk about it…..

 

Where are your thoughts right now?

Today, my thoughts have been sort of all over the place.  Have you ever had those days where you started one project then before you know it, you look up and find you have literally started multiple projects scattered all about.  I sat there a moment looking around and actually said out loud:  “this is not like me at all, what just happened here”…

That is very true, I am naturally quite focused and specific about my projects.  However, this morning my desk looks like it exploded with thoughts and ideas all over the place.  For me that’s clearly a teachable moment and if you listen carefully, you will be able to hear which of those thoughts and ideas speaks to you the loudest.  If you don’t hear anything, then try again because you are clearly not sitting quietly enough or long enough with an open mind.

 

Are your ideas in one place or are they scattered all over.

When you find yourself going from one task to another and another……  Suddenly you realize, wow I’ve done a lot today, until you stop and look around you.  What do you see? You started the day straightening up the kitchen, then suddenly stopped and you found yourself in the living room, oops now you’re in the garage.  All these different rabbit trails where you started one thing and in the middle of it you wound up in another area, or 3 or 4, okay more than that.  None of what you started in each area was finished before you moved on to something else that popped up.

It might be in your office when you begin to write an idea down, but then start making notes about something that popped in your head, but, now you’re in the file cabinet because you were looking for something and decided to clean it out, then the phone rings and you suddenly commit to saying: “I’ll do it right now.”  Work is always a famous place too for rabbit trails, little starts and stops and turns to something else and something else.   

Holly Smacks!  You are working so hard, moving everywhere, covering a lot of ground.  Now, take a good look: you haven’t accomplished one thing……  Do any of these 2 examples sound familiar, and that is only 2 examples of the 6 that were intended for today.  But I am going to stay a point here, for your sake, well, okay, for my sake too.

 

How can you stop these rabbit trails to no-where? 

Every one of you have different methods of completing your own ‘To Do List’ of things you have just got to get done today, but instead you’re on your usual mission of starting anything that pops up in your mind at any given moment.  Sounding a little more familiar yet?  Well I am not going to be exactly on point for each of you, so I’m just going to jump in here.

To satisfy everyone I will say this: what you want to get done in any given day will not be what you will actually get done for that day.  Unless you are in the military, and I have been in the military as an officer so I can speak to this, you will not have an exact list of orders and itinerary with the expectations you will complete.  So, you will not complete the list of tasks you thought you would.  No surprise there.

 

To prevent the ‘rabbit trail” dilemmas, you have to be focused and alert each moment to what you are doing:

First:  Don’t set up your list of what to do tomorrow, the night before.  Tomorrow is 8-12 hours away and a lot of things will change from the time you make that list until you actually get started.  So give yourself some time to get your thoughts together in the morning and keep your list short.

Second:  Be realistic with your list.  If you have ad copy to write, a report to finish, a presentation to prepare for and already have 6 prospect calls to make before noon. you’ll be lucky to even finish one of those tasks.  Writing Ad copy takes creative time to come up with an idea, display images and keep the content within the spot.  To finish a report that’s already started, you have to mentally bring your thoughts all the way back into what you were actually thinking when you were writing the report idea.  Presentation prep, that’s just full of time needed for thought gathering ideas even if you do follow the short cut method of 3 key points instead of the standard 5-6 key points areas.  Making 6 prospect calls, that is something you do not want to rush.  Although 6 is not many unless you are stacking these calls up against the other, these can be time consuming and should never be rushed.

Third:  If your day is going to be at home, you also need to be realistic with your list.  If you have the house to clean, shopping to get done, prescriptions to pick up and paint colors to pick out, what in the world are you thinking?  As in the second example, this list has all time consuming activities that each have the ability to require more time than you think. How many times have you combined just cleaning the house and grocery shopping together without running out of time by the end of the day.  Seriously, you know from experience these always wind up taking a lot longer than you allow for.  Then after all that running around, do you really think you are going to have a clear mind and thought process to stand there and pick out paint colors?

 

Where are you going wrong here, do you see a pattern?

Okay, now this topic today is really not meant to ‘show you’ how to make a list and get you organized at your desk.  However, in the examples I have listed above, these are real lists I have witness others doing all the time and they still wonder why they can’t ever get anything done.

There really is no ‘right or wrong’ way to get yourself organized and I’m sure you can find a book somewhere that will cost you money just to tell you what you already know.  You really already know what you need to do:  s l o w  d o w n  and  be still.  The problem is we ALL need to throttle down, slow down, step back, chill out, or what ever word or word combination will get through to you.  We are all busy, we are all on a deadline of some sort, and have to get it all done ‘yesterday’.  Do you really?  Do you really have to run full throttle all of the time?

 

Now what, do you see another pattern?

Why are we always on the dead run all the time?  Why are we packing in as many things as we can into one day?  You already know from experience in the past it’s not going to all get done, so why do you continue to try to do it?  Why are you in such a hurry to get that list completed, or get that report done, or quickly get those calls done.  Where are you going in such a rush all the time, to the next thing on your list or the next pile on your desk?  

 

You know what you need to do, don’t you?

You are in such a hurry with your head down looking at your lists, looking at your paper work, checking your watch, your speedometer, your cell phone, your computer.  Haven’t you forgotten something? And don’t say you just don’t have enough time…

I read something a long time ago and although I don’t recall who wrote it, but, for those of you who say: “I don’t have enough time” blah, blah, blah…….    

“don’t say you don’t have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were available for, Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein”, etc…   AND none of these individuals had cell phones, computers, cars, printers, copiers, or even indoor plumbing!

 

We all need to breath, to slow down, to just be still, to look up and even take the time to look around us.  

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do”…  – Mark Twain  

 

We are all given only one shot at this, we only have one life and folks, this is it, it’s right now!  All of us are at this very moment in the middle of the life we were each given.  Ask yourself, are you living the life you want?  Is running yourself to death to get your list done or your paperwork caught up, what you really want out of this one life you have?  Let me ask you: on the way to work, school, the store, daycare or to your office (even if it’s at home) this morning, did you actually look around you and notice, dare I say, the environment, the world of wonder that we live in?…..  At the speed many of you are going through everyday, you are going to someday look back and realize you just spent your entire life trying to keep up and meet deadlines for someone else’s life.  

What ever you are doing, what ever your responsibilities, or however you live your life everyday, take the time to stop and just listen carefully to yourself.  Give yourself the time to hear your thoughts.  I know you’ve heard even your parents while growing up say “stop, I can’t hear myself think”…  

 

Thoughts to take with you.

Today I am saying to you: stop and listen to your thoughts, listen to your heart, enjoy what’s around you and live your life.  You CAN do both; complete a reasonable to do list, and enjoy what’s around you.  Give yourself balance so you don’t wind up missing out on all the things that happen to you while you were so busy doing something for someone else, or making other plans that didn’t include your own life.  If you slow down and start to consistently put your own life as a priority first, people may say to you that ‘you’ve changed’.  Of course you have changed, it may simply be because you have stopped living your life, their way….

  

 

See you tomorrow.

 

I would love to hear from you, your thoughts and comments.  I would also like to hear of any topic suggestions you would like discussed here that may interest you.  

*NOTE:   All comments are kept confidential.