Today is a snow day for me. It was a little strange because I woke up to a light dusting of snow on the grass, not nearly enough to cancel school. I got up and started going through my morning routine, totally expecting to head off to school like normal. Right around 6:00 am, though, we got a call saying school would be delayed two hours. About an hour later, we got a call saying that school had been canceled altogether. At that point, probably all the students and most teachers were celebrating the day off. I was mad. I had been sincerely looking forward to my classes today and had some great plans for them that now had to be put off. I texted the other teachers in my department and told them that. They told me that’s exactly what an orchestra kid would say.
With the whole day ahead of me, I figured I could knock out a bunch of school stuff and get ahead. Since we still didn’t actually have any snow, I ran over to my school to pick up some scores and my computer and then headed home to work there. (Hey, what can I say? I’m an orchestra kid at heart and I actually do enjoy my work. Even on a snow day.) I thought with a whole day at home, I could have all my lessons and assignments done and planned for at least a few weeks, right?
Wrong. I did a lot. I worked for several hours and I got a lot done, but I didn’t get through my to-do list. I didn’t finish even half of what I was hoping to do. There are still lots of things for me to finish up tomorrow morning when I get back to school, and even more things that I won’t get to until later this week or even later this month.
Not so very long ago, at the end of a day like today I would be super depressed. How could I have accomplished so little when I had so much time to do it all in? My dream back then was to finish off all the things on my to-do list and finally feel “caught up.” If I wasn’t getting everything done every day, I felt like I was behind and constantly getting farther behind all the time. I remember one day a couple of years ago a teacher friend came in to check on me at the end of the first week of school. I was in tears because after only four days of school I already felt like I was behind and I would never catch up.
Thinking back now, I feel so sorry for my past self. This year I’ve learned a lot about time management. While I’ve learned lots of trick and tips and developed much better habits than I used to have, the most important lesson that I had to learn was that there is always too much to do. It doesn’t matter if you are the most productive person in the world and you use every minute of every hour of every day in the most efficient way possible. At the end of every day, there will be more to do. Accepting that was the first step. The next step was to realize that having too much to do is a good thing.
At the end of every day, there will be more to do. Accepting that is the first step. The next step is to realize that having too much to do is a good thing.
If you have too much to do, that means you are working towards something. You have a purpose and you are contributing to something. We all need that sense of purpose and drive to have a happy life. If you ever get to the point in your life where you don’t have enough to do (i.e. me at the beginning of summer break before I get into my summer routine), you will probably find that you are terribly unhappy. It’s that work, that to-do list that keeps us moving towards purpose, fulfillment, and joy.
Once we understand that there will always be too much to do and that’s great, then we can be okay with not getting it all done. Yes, I have about 78 more tasks on my to-do list, but no one ever said they need to all get done right now. I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as I thought I would with an unexpected day off of work, but if I had worked, my list of accomplishments would have been much shorter. Those things that I didn’t get done can wait until tomorrow or next week or maybe even next month and that’s just fine.
Having too much to do has another side benefit. If you don’t have time to do everything, then you get to decide what’s most important and focus on that. Instead of aimlessly working on whatever random task that seems the easiest or most convenient just to cross it off the list, you can intentionally work on those things that are most valuable at the moment. Your work will become something more than just a frantic scramble to finish off as much of the to-do list as possible. It will become a process of intentionally working towards the goals that you decide are of most worth right now.
Finally, once you have accomplished those things that you intentionally decided to do today, you can stop. You can go home with a clear mind, knowing that the rest of the work will be there waiting for you when you decide to do it. In the meantime, you can take some free time to do the things that aren’t on any to-do list. Read a book. Talk to a friend. Go for a walk. Eat a good meal. Create the life that makes you happy.
Today’s Challenge
Choose one to three things that you absolutely must get done today. Focus on them and do them well. If you have more time and can get more than three things done, great. If not, that’s great, too. If you have more that needs to get done, write it down and decide when you can do it later.