All the way done
Manhattan will never stop evolving, but individual cranes are eventually replaced by completed buildings. (NASA image)
The other day, I had the longest day of driving I’ve ever experienced, and I did it solo.
I hit the road at 6:30 AM and reached my destination at around 9:30 PM, with a little over an hour’s worth of stops.
Miraculously, I was never drowsy and didn’t get too hungry. My energy was good the whole time. I had the option of stopping, but I just felt like driving. By the time night fell, I was so close to the end that the momentum carried me along.
There are a few strategies I stole from my work life that made this possible. I know that my energy is best first thing in the morning, so I made sure to capitalize on that. Also, I was focused: I knew that driving was my main activity for the day, so I shifted as many of my other activities as I could to other days.
And though it is important to stop driving before you get sleepy, I was able to take advantage of an additional productivity strategy that has really helped me during the pandemic. I committed to getting the project all the way done, and followed through until it happened.
I have observed, in myself and others, the tendency to get overwhelmed when there are multiple projects and tasks competing for attention. The presence of these various projects and tasks leads to overwhelm in the first place, and we might exacerbate this problem by toggling from one to the next, unable to settle down. We’re checking our email, responding to notifications, noticing the pile of papers on the desk, opening multiple tabs on our Internet browser, and so on. New requests are coming in faster than we can complete them, and too many different inputs are competing for our attention.
In these moments, we can diminish the overwhelm by choosing one task (whether it’s a standalone task or one related to a project) and do it until it’s all the way done. To do this, we have to ignore all of the other tabs and notifications and competing priorities in favor of the one we’ve chosen. Then, ten minutes or two hours later, we can pick another one.
It often doesn’t matter which task we’ve chosen. Sometimes, I feel significantly better if I do something physical, like cleaning the kitchen or putting everything on my desk into a box. Other times, I’ll answer an email that has been sitting a little too long.
These quick wins can be great, but there is also something to be said for fully completing an entire project, even if it’s not yet due. For instance, I could have taken two days to do my drive, and that would have been fine. However, compressing my efforts into one day turned out to be energizing—not only while I was doing it, but afterward. I then applied this energy and confidence to the next project (after a good night’s sleep, of course).
It’s a real stress-inducer and productivity-killer to fret about Project B while you’re working on Project A and vice versa. Get the first project all the way done—or fully complete a defined, discrete, check-off-able task related to it—and then shift your attention to the next. It is simple, but for me, it is the key to satisfying work days and turning around unsatisfying ones. It is how I am able to find focus and calm during the times when I feel the least focused and calm.
What can you get “all the way done” today? How about in the next fifteen minutes?
