This is Optimal Living Daily, episode 799, Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time, by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net, and I'm Justin Malek. Welcome back or welcome for the first time if you're new here. This is where I simply narrate blogs for you, sometimes books, but in any case, always with permission. I have a little Zen Habits weekend for you to celebrate 800 episodes of this show.
Crazy. Now let's hear today's post as we optimize your life. Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time, by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net. One of the biggest frustrations many of us feel is having too much to do and not feeling like we have enough time to do it.
We are overwhelmed. Of course, having not enough time is just a feeling. We all have the same amount of time, but we often fill up the container of our days with too much stuff. The problem is having too much stuff to fit into a small container, 24 hours.
If we look at task management and time management as simply a container organization problem, it becomes simpler. How do we fit all of the stuff we have to do into our small container? By simplifying and letting go. I promise with this two-step process, you'll be able to deal with the problem of too much to do, not enough time.
Simplifying our tasks. When we realize we're trying to fit too much stuff, tasks, errands, obligations, into a small container, 24 hours, it becomes obvious that we can't get a bigger container, so we have to get rid of some stuff. It just won't all fit. We do that by simplifying what we have to do.
Mindfulness is a helpful tool here. Pay attention to all the things you do today and tomorrow, and try to notice all the things are fitting into the container of your day. What websites are you going to in the morning, in the evening? What games are you playing on your phone?
What are you reading? What busy work are you doing? How much time are you spending on email, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram? How much time on blogs, online shopping sites, YouTube?
How much TV are you watching? How much time do you spend cleaning, maintaining your personal hygiene, taking care of other people? How much time driving around or commuting? What are you spending the valuable commodity of your attention on?
What you might realize is that you're fitting a lot of junk into the container. Toss some of that out. Ban yourself from certain sites or apps until you've done a few really important tasks. Notice also that you're committed to a lot of things.
Those commitments are filling up your life. Start getting out of some of them and saying no to new ones. Now look at your task list. How many of those things can you reasonably do today?
I say three. If you could only do three things today, which would be the most important? If you've ever played baseball and swung a bat, you know that what matters is not so much how hard you swing, but hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the bat. What you need to do with your task list is hit it with the sweet spot of the bat.
Find the tasks that have the most impact, that matter most to your life. Choose carefully because you only have so much room in your life. Now ask yourself this, which task would you do if you could only do one task today? That should be what you put your focus on next, just that one task.
You can't do your entire list today and you can't do your top three tasks right now, so just focus on one important task. Clear everything else away and focus on that. By picking your tasks carefully, you're taking care with the container of your time. You can pick important tasks or joyful ones, but you're being conscious about the choices.
You're treating it like the precious gift that it is, limited, valuable, to be filled with the best things, and not overstuffed. The Art of Letting Go. What about all the other stuff you want to do or feel you need to do? What if it doesn't fit into the container?
This is where the joyful art of letting go becomes useful. You have too many things to fit into your container and you've decided to only put the important and beautiful things into the container. That means a bunch of things you think you should do are not going to fit. You can get to those later or you can not do them.
Either way, they won't fit into today's container. This in itself is not a problem, but it only becomes a problem when you're frustrated that you can't fit it all in. Your frustration comes from an ideal that you should be able to do it all, that you should be able to do everything on your list, plus more. You want to travel, work out, meditate, learn a new skill, read more, be the perfect spouse or find a spouse, be the perfect parent or friend or sibling, draw or create music, and so on.
Your ideals don't match with reality. The reality is that you can't do this all today or even this week. You can choose to do some of them, but the others will have to wait or not get done at all. Since you can't get a bigger container, you need to adjust your ideals.
The ideal you choose to have can be this, that this moment be exactly as it is. The old ideal is one that you can toss into the ocean as it was harming you, causing frustration. Let it go with joy and relief. The new ideal is that this moment is perfect and it deserves to be in your container.
You just listened to the post titled, Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time, by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net. Welcome aboard Via Rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and sip, play, post, taste, view, and enjoy.
Via Rail, love the way. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it. One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers and their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins.
Plus, it used to cost $499. Right now, it's just $199. And head to superpower.com and use code OLD at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership. All right, have a happy Saturday and wonderful weekend.
I'll be back tomorrow with some more from Leo Babauta, marking 800 episodes of this show. So I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits.