Dealing with conflicting priorities

Good Morning I hope you had a good weekend, one that was filled with many completed projects and items ticked off the to-do lists.

Often though we can delay starting work on a new project, or even projects that we have gone some way towards completing, because we have competing priorities.

We don't know which one to start on first, because they all seem to be important.

So we delay starting on all of them, things get stuck, we get down and depressed, and end up doing even less. We hide behind busy work trying to blot out the fact that we're not doing what we know we should be doing.

We get given more and more jobs to do, compounding the problems that we are facing. We begin to think that taking a day or two "off sick" is the way to go, after all if we bury our heads in the sand for long enough someone will come and dig us out.

First of all, do not make the mistake of thinking that someone elses inability to manage their projects and time is anything to do with you. It's not.

Imagine that your life is like an hour glass, individual grains of sand fall through the narrow connection - our projects, tasks and problems are like those individual grains of sand. They can only be dealt with one at a time, in the order they are presented to us. We can however, give the hour glass a shake if things seemed to get clogged up, and the clogging is because you don't know which project to work on now.

Your focus - first and foremost is on those things that you need to do. However, if the person doing the delegating is a superior, then get them to make a decision. What projects take priority - and get the decision in writing. Once you do that, any associated stress is relieved. And you can focus on whatever task is at hand.

Of course if you are the one giving yourself multiple projects to do, so that you can hide behind the multiple project syndrome, then you need to ask yourself why.

What are you so afraid of that you don't want to complete anything. The sand in your hour glass is stuck and you are not moving anywhere.

Do not be afraid to make a mistake or two - no-one ever got it right on the first attempt, why should you think you could? If you don't believe me, then ask a scientist or two, or a writer. How many times does a writer re-write a sentence, edit the draft, re-edit the draft, check for spelling and punctuation?

So, throw the pen away - grab a pencil and some coloured crayons. Make a board - fill it with images of what you want to achieve, get excited about something - anything. But before you head off to your nearest art store, ask yourself one final question. Is the project that you have chosen to work on, the one that will get you closer to where you want to be in the next 5 years? Or is it just another time waster?

With Many thoughts,
Elle
MotivateMe! Providing you with the strategies you need to overcome the procrastination habit.

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  Elle
  Overcoming the procrastination habit with a daily dose of motivational medicine.