Three Things

We’d been talking a little bit about debt recently, how to approach it, how I’d been taught to pay the smallest first (not the lowest interest!) and when one’s paid off, roll those payments into the next and the next and so forth until you I don’t owe Marquette University any longer for that one expensive but oh so awesome year I spent there.

We were talking about approaching big goals in the same way, breaking them into smaller goals and how we as humans seek this sense of accomplishment, and even little achievements can be oh-so-motivating.

Talk to Me

And then we had one of those late-night conversations all sprawled out and pajama-fied.  We had one of those conversations where we talked about direction and goals and figuring out how to get what we want when sometimes we don’t even know how to really articulate that.

Clarity, after all, is the key to manifestation.

And then the light bulb went off for him somewhere, and I fell asleep, while he stayed up filtering ideas through appropriate channels, outlining, mentally wireframing the tasks and goals at hand.

When we woke up the next morning, the previous night’s conversation picked back up, except that instead of further deliberating how goals might be met, he said with simple clarity,

“I just decided that to stop feeling stuck and really get started, I had to ask myself – what are three things I can do right now to move this forward?”

And with that, priorities rose to the surface, non-priorities floated out of the way, and super simple move-forward steps became glaringly obvious.

Start at Zero

Confession:  I’ve felt burnt out all week.  I felt like my output level was too high, my input level was too low, and I struggled for balance (yes, Michelle, I still have formspring questions to answer for you, I will I promise! ).  I know that my reaction to stress isn’t fight or flight, it’s freeze.  I know what freezing feels like, and I know the way my body shuts down when that happens, and I know what it feels like when it comes back to life.

I come back with a new sense of energy and of focus, which is a good thing since during those moments of freezing I tend to stop producing, backburner tasks that require output, and find myself with a bit of catching up to do.

So, the first thing I did this morning was open up Notepad and type it out – “What are three things I can accomplish today?”

1. Write an article
2. Whittle my inbox down to 25 by replying, filing, deleting.
3. Turn in a freelance piece.

So I did those things, and then I wrote down three more things.  And I did those things.  And sure enough, a few hours later I realized I was exactly as caught up as I was behind and all because I set smaller goals to get a whole bunch of things done.

This is as true for our to-do lists as it is for our debt and as it is for our dreams.  What seems unattainable to you right now might just be a mere three steps away.

What three things can you accomplish today, to put you closer to where you want to be tomorrow?

{Photo credit}

Tagged as: productivity, three things, time management, too much to do