40 years on this planet and I’ve only just realised this.
Friday is my catch-up day. I’m careful to keep the day free of meetings so I can do more “thinking work”.
Often the day is consumed catching up on emails, and it’s a regular ritual to work through and clear out dozens of messages amassed throughout the week.
Following this disciplined approach I can get my inbox back to single digits.
Around 40% is nonsense solved with a quick delete.
The next 40% require a little bit of thought, but aren’t too troubling and usually get resolved with a quick reply.
The final 20% are the challenging ones. Requiring someone else’s input, deep work, whatever.
My ability to battle away at getting never ending emails off my desk has been a heavy measure throughout my working career whether this week was “productive” or not.
The last few weeks have not met that criteria.
For every bit of nonsense getting removed, more came in.
The quick replies seemed to generate four times as many email responses, while the challenging ones never quite got resolved.
As I began worrying about my forever growing inbox, I heard some advice that made me realise I’d been approaching tasks all wrong.
Here it is…
You’re not climbing Everest
I can’t even remember where I heard this advice so that I can credit them, and I’ve probably messed up this quote.
But when it comes to tasks, you need to stop treating everything like you’re climbing Everest – it’s not something you work on to conquer and then do something else.
It’s an ongoing routine where you keep working away, improving, getting things done, but never needing to have an end goal.
Thinking this way, changed how I approach goals and tasks throughout my whole life.
I have a mounting list of jobs to do
We’ve recently had some work done to our house. Now it’s finished I need to add painting to a mounting list of household tasks.
A bit like the emails, these aren’t anything too complex, just things like putting up a blind and weeding the garden.
But with that mindset of treating my jobs like I’m climbing a summit much of my success was placed on clearing the list to zero.
And when you put that pressure on yourself, you’re never going to be happy.
It’s not about getting everything done and complete, but the process of progression.
One job at a time, doing what I can within reason of accepting I can’t work 24 hours a day – being the model employee , be super dad, devoted husband husband, the best, loyal friend who sorts everything, then have time to fix up the perfect dream house.
No you have to allow time out, you time to avoid burning out, that involves making deliberate plans to prioritise yourself and sharpen the saw.
To be happy in yourself, you have to accept there is no ‘end’, you have to keep going, and recognise the small bits of progress, and things you achieve each day.
Progress not perfection at the gym
When I first started going to the gym was I motivated to join because it would lead me to an inevitable ‘done’ state?
Can you go and overload extra training to be a “complete” fit and athletic individual.
No of course you can’t.
If you want to avoid sucking wind everytime you run 100m to catch a bus, you have to accept you can’t purge an intense short term exercise routine to achieve long term benefits.
It’s about consistency, routine, and being prepared to stay motivated as long as you can that will help you progress.
Sure you can have small short term goals like losing a bit of scale weight, and getting inches off the waistline, but once achieved, the work needs to continue to stop it coming back.
Goals are for losers?
Way back in 2014 I wrote a review of Scott Adams’ book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.
In my review I concluded the biggest takeaway was Adams’ advice on developing systems and not goals.
As he so eloquently put:
“Losers have goals. Winners have systems”
What’s the difference between the two? A simple way of explaining:
A goal is about the output:
- Lose 10lbs.
- Get promoted.
- Learn how to play the piano.
A system is about the daily habits that get you there:
- Exercise 30 minutes a day, drink more water, no more than 2000 calories.
- Network, go on a course, take on additional responsibility.
- Practice 10 minutes a day, read theory books.
Knowing this I’m more aware than ever of my failings to approach everything with that done mindset, whether it’s clearing out my inbox to zero, or completing all the household jobs.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have goals that you can draw a line on, but to keep your mind, and to keep going, make sure you’ve got a good system going to balance your life.
I’m done being done
For the first Friday in a long time I didn’t worry about how much was in my inbox.
I’d get round to doing that, bit by bit consistently (and it didn’t matter whether I’d get it down to a nice small number).
Instead I focused on reflecting on the week – seeing what I’d done, what still needed doing, and what I needed to consider for the next working week.
I sorted out a training course until now I’d never got the chance to booking and spent some time working a task that wasn’t a priority, nor need doing now, but something I was interested in and wanting to explore for my own personal job satisfaction.
You don’t need to approach everything with the end in mind, because the only true end there is, is when we depart this world.
Next time you approach a task, think whether you’re treating it as part of an ongoing process, or trying to reach the top of the summit.
Wishing you the best in your success,
James @Perfect Manifesto
Perfect Manifesto 
Progress not perfection! Well said! I try to live my life this way, for the other way is unsustainable. I learned that when I had chronic Shingles for 10 years, that sucked all my energy reserves dealing with pain and lack of good sleep. I didn’t have supportive people around me who understood what I was going through, rather they labeled me with unflattering terms. I had to come to a point that I could accept my limitations, and just give myself the space to be less amazing than them, while realizing I was giving my 100%, even though it was less than others.
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We can only do what we can and accept our limitations/lack of experience/knowledge/health/energy that might impact our ability to do as much as the next person – giving it 100% on whatever we work on, and taking that time out to invest in our own growth and recover to keep doing more is what matters!
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Well put! Our 100% won’t necessarily match up with someone else’s 100%, and we need to be okay with that, understanding that we can only do our best in a given time, and even then, how that 100% looks will also fluctuate!
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