TRAPPSTR

Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Brett in Wrk

I’ve been trying to wring the water out of a sponge with ten broken fingers.

Sweating, stressing, feebly twisting that sponge around in agony. But I get nothing. No matter how great my effort is, my grip is just too weak.

The sponge is a day, and all the water is the maximum amount of productivity I can squeeze out of that day.

With every digital distraction I indulge, with every pointless task I engage, with every goofy bit of nonsense I drill into, a finger breaks and my grasp on that day weakens.

But…

I’m learning: Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

My work day can be a towering waterfall of tasks, projects, priorities, emails, appointments, phone calls, and relationships. Each item tumbling down the falls and gathering in a big pool of stress at my feet.

But I’m learning.

I’m learning to disengage from the urgent. That’s the tough part–turning down the volume on the swarm of howler monkeys wanting my attention. When I do that, the waterfall freezes in time. The scene goes quiet, I take a step closer, I squint my eyes, and I…

Inspect.

Inspect.

Inspect.

What am I looking at? What’s really important? What does my time window allow for? I write it down. After I inspect it, I judge the value of every item and how it aligns with my bigger goals, shifting and sliding my To-Do list around like a Rubiks-cube. That’s how I…

Prioritize.

Prioritize.

Prioritize.

It’s fun to get underneath the Waterfall of Busyness and splash around and kick my feet. All the motion and noise and excitement make me feel important. But commotion isn’t productivity. I need to call a timeout–Inspect and Prioritize. And only then should I begin my Work. A few hours later, I Repeat it all over again.

And as I do that, the bones heal, the color comes back to my fingers, and I’m ready to strangle every ounce of goodness trapped in this day.