I’m driving myself crazy lately.

“Only lately?” you might ask, and I frown because that’s unkind.  So, let me just say it is worse than normal.

The problem is my juggling act is getting worse.  I have a giant client project* I am working on at the moment but I have a whole bunch of little things for other projects that need to get done and because of the gears problem I mentioned yesterday, I keep blustering ahead on the big project and leaving the little things in low gear (or no gear).

When someone asks about the low gear things, I pick a time that seems reasonable (but has no relation to the amount of work I have to accomplish in the meantime) and say I’ll have the task done by then. Then I go about my business until I remember that task at the last minute and scramble to do it.

See? Crazymaking, no?

But the good news is, I have a plan.

I’m going to start carrying a notebook with me at all times and whenever I think of something I have to do (or someone asks me to do something) I’m going to add it to the list…

“Sure,” you say, “but that’s no improvement.”

That’s when I chide you for your impatience (chide is a great word, no?) and you realize you didn’t let me finish.

I’m going to add it to the list but, BUT, I am not going to commit to a time. The time commitment will have to wait until I get a chance to look at my calendar, see my work time and pick I time I can fit it in.

So here’s the plan

1) find the proper (pocket) notebook

2) create running list

3) when a new to do comes up,  add it to the list but do NOT agree to a time

4) pick a time each day to add to dos to work schedule, cross them off the notebook list as they are added to the schedule

5) email/phone people to tell them when stuff will be ready

6) do the stuff when scheduled

7) feel less overwhelmed

So that’s the plan for this part of the problem. I need a whole different plan for scheduling my work time, but let’s take this one step at a time, hey?

 

*to clarify, the project is giant, the client is average-size.