Living Simply - 3 Tasks at a Time
Recently, I had a very long conversation with a great friend, and we were talking about the idea of overwhelm. We talked about things like language learning and how complicated and frustrating that can be. I made a suggestion which I think ended up helping us both.
The idea actually comes from "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, who I believe borrowed it from still someone else. He has a daily ritual of writing down three things on a sticky note before going to bed, and those three things are his "must-do" items -- his most important items to complete for the next morning BEFORE he can do anything else. No phone, no TV, no emails, etc., until these three things are accomplished.
This sets the tone for the day on a high note of success before the day is really started. After I learned about this idea, I took it and applied it to more things – I wanted to use it on tasks, projects, plans, and more. At the time, I had countless other projects and commitments, and needless to say, I was feeling completely overwhelmed.
To test out the theory, I picked, at random, a project involving a fair amount of planning for an event. I decided that, rather than three things per day related to this project, I would do just one thing. So, for this project, I created a duplicate of the planning spreadsheet I had used the year before for the same project, and I updated it with this year’s information, such as location, time, date, etc.
AND, that was it!
I was finished (or as we like to say in Baltimore, I was done!) I did nothing else on this project for the rest of the day, and instead, I moved on to the next project, and I applied this idea again. By the time I was finished with all of these mini accomplishments on over a dozen items that required my attention, I felt great. I had no fatigue, no mental drain, no need for a nap, and I actually felt really great. I felt as though I had conquered the world for the day. And, maybe most importantly, I felt relaxed and with no signs of stress anywhere.
The next day, of course, I went on to the next thing that needed to be done for each of these projects. For the first project, I sent an email to all of our volunteers, sharing with them the new spreadsheet I had created, and inviting them to fill in the blanks wherever they could volunteer. Then I went on to the next project.
And, before I knew it, once again I was done!
I felt great, and I felt a true sense of accomplishment. I no longer felt overwhelmed, and I knew that each of these items would get done in due time. Of course, these were all projects that were far enough out that I knew I had time to approach each one this way. I suspect that if one of them was more urgent, I may have used the same approach, but throughout the day, i.e., one quick item, then revisit the project an hour or two later for another quick item, etc.
Ultimately, during the discussion I was having with my friend, we both realized that this would be a great approach for language learning. She was pouring everything she had into learning, and she was getting frustrated and overwhelmed. So, together we pulled on the mighty AI resources that are out there to create a list of just 100 of the most commonly used words in the Polish language that were used in daily conversational Polish in Poland. These were not from a text book, and they weren’t from some phrase book for tourists. In fact, the AI was instructed to specifically exclude touristy language.
To our delight, the AI produced a categorized list, and it included nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. She then went on to ask it to create a short list of 5-10 daily use phrases, using words from the list it had already created, and making it did just that. And, all of a sudden, she had a solid starting point. She could use this information to practice in small intervals, to satisfy herself, and to gradually build a base upon which her language skills grow stress-free.
She is now using this list to practice just these words and phrases so that she feels a sense of accomplishment, and it only takes 5 minutes or so per day. She’s not in a hurry. There’s no race. There’s no pressure, and there’s no stress. It’s very relaxed, comfortable, and enjoyable.
Imagine knowing that you have to spend 20, 30, 45 minutes or more at a time trying to absorb this information. Now imagine that you decide to do it a little later … and a little more later … and even a little more later … until you just say never mind, I’ll do it tomorrow.
Now imagine looking forward to accomplishing your one quick doable task of spending a fun five minutes learning a new word or two or three, or a phrase or two. And now imagine you do this everyday for the next ten days.
At the end of ten days, you could have put off learning every single day because of the mental friction and feeling of overwhelm, or you could have accomplished spending a total of 50 minutes over the same time frame, and learning a bunch of new words and phrases. And just like that you’re light years ahead of the other you.
I hope this makes sense and that you can see where we are going with this. More importantly, I hope you feel excited about the possibilities this brings. I hope that you will feel free to give yourself permission to succeed – one task at a time, one day at a time.
And, going back to Mr. Wonderful, perhaps you still make that list of three things to accomplish before you do anything else in the day, and perhaps those three things will each be one of these simple, efficient, effective, and easily completed items on your bigger to-do list so you can be excited about getting started on them in morning, and getting finished with them too!
When you approach life this way, you’re sure to find lots of space between lots of moments so you can just breathe and be you; so you can remember who you are and how you really want to live; and so you can be a human being rather than a human doing.
Best wishes to you as you find success, happiness, and stress-free living. And, remember to be happy being you every day!!!
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Living Simply - 3 Tasks at a Time
skool.com/the-space-between-moments
A calm, judgment‑free space to slow down and remember who you are by finding The Space Between Moments.
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