When I watched the following video from Justin Sung, I realized that I am often guilty of the two problems he cites with regards to making my schedule work for me, rather than getting demoralized and feeling like I am always behind with respect to what I need to do. First, the video:
Now, the two tips and my take on them (but if you have time to watch the video, Justin goes into deeper detail):
First: my schedule is cluttered and I don’t always properly estimate how long it will take me to complete something, especially in the face of interruptions and other distractions that I may not be able to avoid. I work in IT, and like many in IT, getting time for deep work can be a struggle. However, I am making the situation worse by not giving myself enough time for unexpected delays or issues. Mr. Sung recommends doubling the initial time estimate, especially for beginners. If you happen to finish before the time is up, you can use it for other things, including rest. For Star Trek fans, another way to think about this is the Scotty Principle. I know the Scotty Principle and have often espoused it, but my schedule gets broken because of my unwillingness to do the second tip. When my schedule gets broken, I start to feel like I’m falling behind. That negative feeling impacts performance and can cause a cycle of worse performance until I realize what is happening and choose a reset (sometimes a hard one). I know I’m not alone in this.
Second: pick your losses. We can’t do everything we want to do. If we don’t selectively pick what we battles we will lose, we will end up not having a choose and potentially suffering some form of loss across many of them. Andy Stanley wrote a book years ago that Joe Webb recommended to me called Choosing to Cheat (Google Books summary page). Andy Stanley pointed out the same thing. Its hubris to try and do everything. And it’s a trap I fall in to a lot more than I should. It’s anecdotal, but most of my friends who look to achieve a lot seem the most susceptible to fall into this trap.