I had a friend in college who used to get really stressed out. He was pretty much a nervous wreck most days because he was always dashing between these huge projects (mostly art projects, but also stuff for his other classes) that required him to work in different studios across campus. Sometimes he forgot to eat, went for days without sleeping, and more than once found himself in trouble because he forgot to turn in his registration paperwork.
I remember one time when he was on the verge of what may have been a panic attack, he said, in a moment of pristine clarity, something I’ve never been able to forget:
“I’d rather have one HUGE project to work on than ten smaller projects, even if the ten smaller projects together took less time to finish than the big project.”
Juggling a Lot of Little Things Stresses You Out
Right now my weekly To-Do list has 14 things on it, ranging from a novel project I’ve been working on for the last two years to a reminder to send a quick email. Sending the email should take me less than five minutes, as will at least one other thing on the list, while another 4-5 things on there should take me less than an hour each.
The small things aren’t a big deal, but looking at all that stuff on the list makes it harder for me to single out individual items, thus making me feel like I have a lot more on my plate than I actually do. And I don’t like that feeling.
I like crossing the smaller items off my To-Do list for the same reason I like keeping my desk clean: when my work area feels disorganized, my mind’s instinctively drawn to all the stuff that’s out of place or waiting to be taken care of, which causes a series of momentary distractions. These distractions keep me from focusing on the work I want to focus on so that my productivity suffers and I have trouble concentrating, thus creating a snowball effect where I fall even further behind because I’m worried about all the stuff on my list.
It Pays to Do the Little Things First, But Be Careful
Because my To-Do list has so many little things on it this week, I’m trying to take care of them one by one—I crossed off four items yesterday, and plan to cross off another three today after I write this, bringing the total down to 11 items, which is a lot tighter than it looked a few days ago.
My hope here is that if I can get rid of all the little things I’ll have a cleaner To-Do list and fewer deadlines moving into the end of the week, leaving me freer to focus on bigger projects (e.g., the novel). Since I also like working on my writing in larger chunks of 2-4 hours where I can concentrate better, cramming a lot of little tasks into other blocks of time makes it easier to set aside those larger chunks later because I’ll have less to do, thus making it possible for me to actually get those bigger projects done.
I do think there’s a danger to this mentality, though: if you spend your whole week, your whole month, or your whole life doing all the smaller things on your To-Do list (or Bullet Journal, if that’s your style), then there’s a real danger that you’ll never get to the bigger projects because more and more small things will keep coming up…and by the time you get all of those small things done it’ll be the weekend, you’ll be tired, and you’ll want to rest.
And that’s a very real feeling that makes it harder to get your work done.
In my day-to-day routine, I like to focus on the smaller tasks but also set aside certain periods for bigger things—for example, drafting this entry will take me more time than sending that email, but I’m drafting this entry first because I’d rather do it earlier in the evening when I have more energy, whereas I can send the email and do the simpler tasks on the list easily at the end of the night, even when I have less energy. And tomorrow I want to set aside some time to work on the novel, so I’ll have to push back a few of the smaller things yet again if I want to lock in that time.
I don’t have a right answer to how to structure your time, but I do think it’s worthwhile to balance everything you’re working on so that you can keep your palette as clear as possible while also making progress on the bigger things—that way, you can enjoy some of the benefits of a shorter To-Do list while also disciplining yourself to actually work on bigger projects that might not have firm deadlines.
Also, Just So We’re Clear…
Finally, I can’t stress this enough—if you haven’t done so already, start writing your shit down!!!!!!! It’s WAY too hard to keep track of everything you want to do in your head at once, meaning that you’ll get stressed out, forget things, or just work less efficiently because you’re constantly chasing deadlines. I’ve been using some form of daily schedule/To-Do list for the last seven years and it’s been helping me immensely, so check out my blog post on To-Do lists or my friend Jack’s post on the Bullet Journal system so you can try putting something together that works for you.
Now to go send that email…
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