How many incoming media/content/messaging streams are you managing right now?
How many tasks do you have on your to-do list today?
How many transition periods (i.e., where you can breathe and reset) do you have built into your calendar today?
We claim we are constantly overwhelmed. We complain about our schedule being too busy. We insist we are overworked.
And, all of those laments may be true.
But why don’t we manage our “how manys” better?
For example, why are we managing a work email account, a work text chain (or 5), and a workplace messaging app? Is that actually making us more effective or efficient? Or, is it causing us to lose valuable time – while also feeling swamped – switching from platform to platform just to keep up?
Or, why not divide up the tasks on our to-do list over the next week or two, instead of just listing them together like a giant wall of unfulfilled goals reminding us how overwhelmed we feel?
For most of us, we don’t realize “how many” of these practices we’ve adopted or not adopted. They have just sort of happened to us. But we do realize the negative consequences.
We can cut down many of the “how manys” so that our lives become easier and lighter, while we become more productive and less stressed.
But only if we start by counting the “how manys” first.
