Clearing the backlog

Kind of cute one at a time, terrifying as an army. (Library of Congress photo)

It is inconvenient and annoying that our past interferes with our present.

We want to change — or maybe we've already changed — and the results of our past decisions follow us around like Pigpen's dust cloud in the old Peanuts comics.

I'm talking about things like debt, clutter, old contracts that still have time on them, and things you said yes to but have not yet completed. It's the backlog of tasks, projects, and other obligations that you have accumulated.

Sometimes, the urgency and overwhelm of this backlog causes us to make decisions that don't serve us. They're based on an outmoded notion of who we are and the stage of life we're in.

Though the backlog needs to be cleared, we need to separate it from our ongoing, day-to-day situation. When we do, we might discover that we don't require the scale of solution that we had thought (or feared).

For years — very difficult years — I pulled too much money out of my high cash flow, high-overhead business. It wasn't making very much money, but I took out everything I could. It was a miserable cycle of flush winters and lean summers in which I'd be looking under the metaphorical couch cushions to make payroll.

Since my customers paid ahead, I was able to get away with a lot.

When it came to my own earning, I was unsatisfied and constantly seeking new income streams in order to keep up with the insanity.

As I became willing to look at my behavior, I made hard decisions. I got clear on my budget and made changes to my spending, pricing, and business structure. I implemented what I knew was the right thing to do instead of hoping that things would get better.

When I stopped cowering and covering my eyes like I was watching the gory part of a horror movie, life stopped feeling like a horror movie. When I examined the numbers, I realized that, once I paid back my business what I owed it, I wouldn't need a bigger income. I was already making enough.

This ended the cycle of panic and allowed me to focus on the projects I had rather than creating new ones out of desperation. True, I still needed a bit extra in order to build back my retained earnings, but that extra showed up organically. I didn't have to go out and sell plasma.

When we seek to get organized and start managing our time better, we might be overwhelmed with the volume of work. We bounce between the options: "I can't do A because I should be doing B and C! But I can't do B and C because D is way overdue!"

This is not the moment to give up and decide that it's hopeless. Instead, we recognize that there is a bit of a backlog. And you know what? If the stuff on that list has been there awhile, it can make it another day. Therefore, we should focus on the critical tasks as usual, and then spend a little extra time each day working from the backlog. It may take weeks, or months, but eventually, we will be up to date.

A trip to the Container Store is not, as I've learned from various organizing and decluttering experts, the first step in a closet rescue project. The problem with an out-of-control closet is that there is more stuff in there than it can handle. When that is resolved, there won't be a need for all of the expensive bins and boxes. The container purchase needs to be made based on what should be in the closet, not what's currently in there.

Newly sober alcoholics may identify long list of people to make amends with in Step Seven. After Step Nine, having made amends as necessary, they're onto Step Ten, where you admit that you're wrong as soon as you notice it. Clearing the backlog makes everything much easier.

Our past decisions and missteps don't have to haunt us forever. We can be intentional about resolving them. As we do, we should recognize that we won't need the resources of time, money, and energy forever, either — just long enough to clear the backlog. As giant as it may seem, acknowledging the finite and temporary nature of that backlog, as giant as it may seem, can be just what we need in order to summon the motivation to do something about it.