Saying "yes" to too many things coupled with waiting until some unparalleled level of excellence is reached on a project or promise, are challenges that face a lot of women. The two are the cause of overstretched and stressed out lives that are uncontrollably out of balance, and result in the slow and painful death of visions -- of doing what truly brings us to life -- because there is no time, there is no pleasure left in our hearts to make it happen. Here's my current story and what I did to keep myself from getting sucked into that pit.
Earlier in 2008 when I was getting the Emma Says podcast site ready to go "live" it took me much longer than I had expected. Given that I was producing 5-minute podcasts, and already had all of the equipment as well as a content map laid out for a 12-month period, you'd think it would have taken me a couple of weeks, maybe a month, and not the 5 months it actually took. Yeah, one might have thought! I certainly figured it'd be quick. But here are two reasons why it wasn't -- multitasking and perfectionism -- two huge time wasters!
Yes, I'm a multi-tasker - a person with wide interests who gets lured into something (other than the important "something" I'm working on) the instant it catches my eye.
Here's how it goes. On my non-client work days, I work on The Women's Edge in Leading projects -- articles, webinars, or whatever. I'll be moving right along, convinced I'm making great progress, when I'll open my browser to do a search or to check out a web reference or whatever. But the news story on my Yahoo! page grabs me, and before I know it, a half hour has slipped away. Well, sometimes it's only 5 or 10 minutes, but that departure has thrown my concentration completely off track.
To help get myself back on task, I might do some deep Yoga-type breathing and then go make myself a chai latte. And woopsie, another half hour gone! Maybe more. Depends on how caught up I've gotten in the deep breathing space, because often that spins off into meditation or even full-blown Yoga sessions, with change of clothes and all!
Okay, so once fully relaxed and refocused, I start again. This time I attempt to stay away from the Internet. But then I check my email because the extroverted side of me craves contact. I begin to plow through the messages. There are many. Too many! I'm overwhelmed. I think I can't put them aside and I start answering the cyber notes. Or I check out a link that someone has sent me, again, because it looks interesting. Ohhh, wow, I'm back on the Internet. How did that happen?
And before I can say "Stop!" an hour or two have flown by. And well, it's now mid-afternoon and my brain's a little fried, so I grab a snack, stretch my neck, and finally decide to put that "important" project I'd been trying to get back to aside until the morning, "when I can be fresh and alert." Yeah, right. "Bye bye" to that and "Hello" to some new interest I've got on the burner. And the story goes on...
Next >>
