How Are You Managing Your Time?
October 5, 2024
I was asked this question yesterday from an entrepreneur friend of mine.
He shared with me how it was really difficult to manage all the different things at hand, stay on top of it, and not get stressed.
"How are you staying on top of it all?"
"I don't," I replied.
I can remember times when that happened to me. Running around, being stressed, not knowing how to prioritize, and thinking that I somehow should know exactly how this thing called entrepreneurship works.
I had the idea that I needed to be the most disciplined, on top of it all, person to make it work. If I missed my own deadlines, it meant failure and extreme pressure for me.
Perfectionism, moods and being short with the people I worked with were some of the results I created through that.
Now when my friend asked me how I stayed on top of everything, I had to laugh silently. I simply don't think that way anymore.
There is always ever to do what is to do and only ever what's in front of me can be done. Pressure and anxiety is not created through your work, but your thinking about it. When I lived in a world where i thought that deadlines, projects, and goals could make me feel a certain way, me too, was trying to stay on top of it all.
But when I discovered how my mind, and therefore your mind works, I realized that all the stress could only come from one place... my thinking!
And, to be more exact, my future-based thinking. Our brain is created in such a way that it constantly tries to predict the future and see if it is safe.
Will I have enough money?
Will this work?
Do I do the right thing?
Will people like it?
When you take a moment to observe your thoughts (you could sit down now for 5 minutes and simply listen to the ongoing conversation in your head.) You will find that the person inside of you sounds like a very worried person, and most of its worst-case scenarios never come to be. In fact, you will find that in most cases, you are really bad at predicting the future.
When I found this I would ask myself, "Is it worth listening to my worries and stressors?"
What I have found is: No.
What is way more worthwhile is simply focusing on the task at hand and giving it my all. Doing one thing at a time, and you find you can always ever do the one thing.
It takes away all the future considerations that so frantically try to pull you into worries and scenarios that never happen.
Try it. One thing at a time. The mind wants to worry? Just come back to what's in front of you.
Repeat as many times as necessary and you'll find that it becomes easier and easier.
Enjoy your day!