“What. Happened?!” I was SO frustrated with myself yesterday.
Running around doing all the things, checking stuff off the list, responding, reacting — getting everything done.
And on my drive to pick up the kiddos I had an utterly annoying revelation.
I had no idea what I’d gotten done all day.
Like I really couldn’t think of one thing of significance.
How was it possible? I was SO BUSY. Yet I was low, exhausted and scattered.
It’s hard not to beat yourself up when you know YOU let the day get out of control. But just like I tell my boys, “don’t focus on what went wrong, but on what you’ve learned.”
So before crawling into bed, I reflected on my day to see where I made mistakes. Here are the top five reasons my day got away from me.
(Needless to say, I acted on all these today and rocked the day. I hope my “no-no’s” help you plan a better tomorrow too).
Annoying Mistake #1: Zero planning the night before
The night before I didn’t review my calendar for the next morning which meant:
- I forgot the kids had to get in early
- I had no idea what I was wearing for my 9am meeting or where it was for that matter
- I didn’t know what my priorities were for the day (this one snowballed into a storm of time wasters).
All this could have been avoided with a 10-minute rundown of my day before I called it a night. A quick check of my calendar and a read over of my to-do list, and my day would have started on time, with calm and on a high note.
Instead I started the day in a frenzy, scattered and late before I even got out the door.
Lesson Learned: Successful days start the night before.
Annoying Mistake #2: Email. Enough said.
I’ve been down that exasperating road before so I don’t know why I ended up there again, but I did.
After my meeting I headed back to the office and before even getting comfortable in my chair, I dove into my email head first, and didn’t come up for air until lunch time.
You might be beginning to see how my lack of prioritizing the night before led to my demise. “Just one more” became my mantra and the hits of email gratification kept coming.
Lesson Learned: Put boundaries on your email time.
Annoying Mistake #3: I let one bad habit lead to another.
I failed to mention that while sucked into email abyss I got sidetracked by FB updates, LinkedIn alerts and a good ole’ fashioned Google search. Because who doesn’t need to know what type of deer have antlers, right there and then?!
It was one dirty addiction on top of another. And did I say I came up for air around lunch time? It might have been more like 2:24pm (give or take a minute).
Had I blocked my time for “project time,” “email checking time,” and even “distraction time,” I would have found myself getting “real work” done, which would have kept me motivated through the day.
Instead I fell into distraction quicksand and every time I struggled to crawl out, I sank in deeper.
Lesson Learned: Block your time. Block your time. Block your time.
Annoying Mistake #4: I let my lists fall by the wayside
My lists are my lifeline, so when I’m drowning I need them most. Except when I’m too busy putting off what I really should be doing, and then I like to pretend they don’t even exist. Pretty sneaky, aren’t I? It all sounded good until 5pm and I felt like a slug for not getting anything worthwhile done.
On the other, (more sensible), hand, instead of shrugging my responsibilities I could of used my lists as the prioritization tools they are meant to be.
Lesson Learned: Ignoring your lists makes everything worse.
Annoying Mistake #5: I focused on nonsense
Since it was 4pm by the time I was ready for the “real work,” I did what any respectable woman with a half hour to spare would do.
I organized my paper piles.
Into really nice, perfectly aligned stacks on different areas of my desk.
Threw out a few papers and reshuffled the rest.
Even added a sticky note to a folder. I know. I’m ruthless.
Relishing in that pleasure wore off as soon as I walked out the door.
Lesson Learned: Focusing on nonsense doesn’t make you feel good at the end of the day either.
Minutes have a tendency to slip by. And soon the minutes become hours and hours become days and days become weeks.
And that’s a terrible way to live sweet friend.
Being intentional with your time doesn’t mean you need to be militant with it, you simply need to be aware of it.
So when you fall into the black hole of distractions, avoidance, perfectionism or confusion, you have the strength and ability to pull yourself out, reassess and realign.
And when you do, you make progress, you FEEL amazing and you never wonder at 5pm,”What. Happened?!”
This is how annoying mistakes turn into awesome achievements.
Now I’d love to hear from you.
Which of the five annoying mistakes do you make most often? And more importantly, what change will you make to avoid them in the future?
Join me in the comments below and let me know. Can’t wait to hear from you.
Here’s to getting more of the right things done!
Xo,
Mridu
Just what I needed to hear!!! This is exactly what I do…no wonder I’m so busy and get very little done – just crazy. I think I finally understand now what I need to do. Thank you!
Steph, I’m thrilled you took so much away from this! But I’m going to challenge you to work on fixing ONE mistake at a time. Which ONE will you commit to first?
I know exactly what I need to do after reading your five mistakes that we make: Get off of the computer!!! As my friend told me, “The computer tends to suck you in.” Oh how true that is. Ok, curtail facebook time!!!!!
Leah, the computer and especially social media are total time suckers! I’ve found that I can’t rely on willpower. If they’re in front of me, I will be on them. 🙂 So I agree with you. Get off of it and turn it off if you need to. Crazy how much we can accomplish when we don’t have distractions staring at us in the face.
So great to hear from you! xo, M