What is the one thing you need to do today? An impossible question? Are there so many things on your to do list you couldn’t possibly pick just one thing?
When we have a thousand things to do, we feel overwhelmed. We can feel like a rabbit caught between the headlights and that makes us anxious. Anxiety can stop us from doing anything – or if we do manage to take some action, we don’t do it particularly well!
Multi-tasking is not always the best thing.
Most of us grew up being taught that multi-tasking is a skill. I disagree. Multi-tasking sometimes feels like a necessity, but ask yourself this:
- When you multi-task, how often do you manage to do all tasks to the best of your ability?
- What would happen if you were to focus on one thing at a time?
- Would that mean that you would be more productive?
- Could you focus on that one thing and do it really well?
It will feel quite alien to do this. We are so used to spinning a multitude of plates, doing a million things at once, that to pick one thing and focus on it is likely to feel very uncomfortable. It is important to persevere though.
How to focus on one thing
Sometimes it’s easier to try this out when we are up against deadlines, when we’re trying to prioritise jobs to get things done.
Ask yourself – “What’s the One Thing that will make an impact on me right now?” Then focus completely on that One Thing. One thing at a time.
If you have the energy and have the capacity once you’ve finished that one thing, pick another and work on that.
One thing at a time.
Dealing with big tasks
If the task is a biggie, if it’s something you’ve been putting off, try this:
- Write that ONE thing on a piece of paper.
- Work on just that.
- If it’s too hard, take another piece of paper and break down the task into small bite size chunks.
- Work on just those, one chunk at a time.
- Nothing is too small to focus on.
- And repeat until complete.
One thing at a time – one bite size chunk at a time.
