How do you organize an overwhelming amount of work? How do you make sure you do what you have to do in a day/week? –@flabastida
There’s two answers. Just like there’s two answers to the question: “How can I have more money?”
Answer #1: You make more.
Answer #2: You spend less.
And it’s not one or the other. You have to do both.
A “week” has three characters in the story of your life: the events of the week, you, and the energy you start the week with.
Like in any good story, the three characters have problems at the beginning of the story, solve them throughout the story, and hopefully live happily ever after at the end.
So let’s see how they can do it:
Character #1: The events of the week. You only have a finite amount of energy. Nobody has infinite. Or we’d be like god or superheroes or something. So assume you have a finite amount of energy. And, to live a wholesome life you need to focus that energy on several things: your family, your friends, the people who love you, your own creative projects, staying healthy, and finally, the projects that advance your career. You also need to find some silence in your life.
So pull out a waiter’s pad right now and make the list: what events over the next week cover all of the above areas. You need to cover all of them. If anything is out of balance (your work projects) then reduce it. Now.
I’m not saying your work life isn’t important. You’ll actually have a more successful work life if you reduce the number of work-related events you have to attend to over the next week. I’ll tell you my work schedule:
A) When I am in New York City I do no more than one meeting in the morning and one meeting in the afternoon.
B) When I write articles for others I try to do no more than one per week.
C) When I do a work-related favor (“can you look at this company?”) I do no more than one per week
D) When I work on my blog I write every day but I post no more than 4-5 times per week.
This is the right balance for me that leaves me time to have silence for myself, spend time with Claudia, spend time with my kids.
What if you have a corporate job? Same thing: Try to do no more than one meeting in the afternoon and one in the morning. Try to spend some time working on your projects. Spend some time networking and/or helping other people with their projects, and make sure you have time for silence.
Character #2: YOU. You need to find time for yourself or you’ll never recharge. Too many people have said to me, “I need to just finish building this business and then I can get back in shape.” SORRY. That doesn’t work. You might die before you finish building that business. It’s important to consistently do some variation of the Daily Practice I recommend either in this post or in my latest book. I say this not because I’m tryng to push you into anything but because I know it worked for me andsince I started recommending it a year ago, I’ve seen it work for many others.
Here’s how it goes, within 1 month you start to have ideas flowing (almost how you would be if all you ate were eggs, fruits, and vegetables – flowing!). Within 3 months you are an idea machine with double the energy. Within six months your life is completely different.
Character #3: Your energy. All I can say is: every six months my life is completely different. And with double the energy. Go for it.