It Bears Repeating: You Can Do it All, but not All at Once!

For practically the first time in my life, I am following one of my favourite pieces of advice: you can absolutely do it all, but not all at once. There has been a huge delta between saying this and accepting it in my life. 

As with so many of the things that are good for you, it's pretty logical, but not always so easy to implement. The imperfect human inside all of us, with that needy inner voice and a limited reserve of willpower, conspires to thwart all honest attempts. You eat that extra Timbit in the meeting, skip that workout, buy that umpteenth thing you don't need. Try to do it all, all the time. Then you burn out, get overwhelmed and binge on Netflix. Only to repeat the same cycle again and again. And all you have to show for at the end of the day is a well-used credit card, a range of clothing sizes to accommodate the accordion action of your waistline, and a bunch of commitments that no longer feel fun but overwhelming. At least that's my story.

Focus and Progress Means Sacrifice

I've known for so many years that in order to achieve the key goals I've set, I would need to dedicate some serious time to them, at the expense of other things. To practice the fine art of "adulting" which requires choice and sacrifice. But I have consistently spattered my time between a million different activities and pursuits, tiring myself out in the process and drying up that well of creativity and energy that I need to devote to the things that matter to me. 

It doesn't help that I really do love trying/doing/seeing/eating the majority of things in life. But I do like some things more than others. And to achieve the great things (finishing my book, writing more, building a relationship, etc.) that don't always follow the path of least resistance, I need to dedicate some time and discipline, and actively lean out some of the other things.

Malcolm Gladwell suggests that you need to spend 10,000 hours doing something before you can be called an expert. This translates to calluses on the hands of a guitar player, years of schooling to be a doctor, and hours upon hours spent writing and reading to be a writer. You can't take the short cut and there are only so many hours in this life.

I specifically chose to work a job that doesn't require a ton of overtime so that I could devote that extra time to a "second career" pursuing more creative endeavours (because we all know the stories about starving artists and I like to eat), but I've filled that time with fun things that make my life exciting but don't bring me any closer to that goal. I became a "yes" woman and while I truly value my integrity to others in terms of rarely cancelling on plans, I gave up on my integrity to myself around the things I set out to achieve. 

So for the first time in my life, I have tried to prioritize the things that aren't the easiest, but know in the base of my bones are the things that are important for me to do. It even meant that I had to quit something that was a major part of my life and brought me so much joy, singing in a choir. In my world, this was a huge sacrifice. For the time being anyhow. 

The Productivity Plan

Here’s what I’m going to do to make sure I actually use this extra time to my advantage: 

• Set aside chunks of time in my week that I think I need to dedicate to be successful in my priority areas and treat them as a requirement;
• Organize these "work" times around the easy fun stuff (I.e. can’t binge-watch the new season of Wentworth unless I’m sick in bed or I’ve accomplished some of the hard tasks on my list);
• Say no without feeling guilty. I'll have way more FOMO later on if I fail to put my mind to any of these goals;
• Find sneaky times to make it work: an hour between work and social events is a good time to do a little bit of writing;
• Don’t beat myself up too much on the things I don’t get done. It's supposed to be fun! Anything that moves me forward, even an inch, is better than no movement;
• Don’t expect it to go swimmingly or for it to produce miraculous results. It might not turn into anything other than a joyful hobby; 
• Take action, even if things are imperfect as they might never be perfect;
• Try my best to not let outside forces like social media convince me that everyone but me has it figured out and I might as well give up trying (maybe get off social media for chunks of time lol); and
• Set up the tools (apps, software programs, technology) to make it easier to organize and take anywhere.

So far so good. After years of saying “I deserve a break tonight, I’ll write tomorrow,” or thinking when I wake up in the morning that there’s no way I’ll find the energy to write after work later that day, I now (keep in mind this has only been a couple of weeks) wake up thinking “I have an opportunity to make a dent in my goals today. How exciting is that!" A cheesy but effective frame of mind.

I still need to take a big breath, often, and remind myself to stay in the moment and not stress about all the things I'm not accomplishing in the interim. But I'm a step closer with each one.

What goal do you need to prioritize to get done and what are the steps you need to take to make it a reality?