So, I was
trucking along just fine… marathon sprinting through my projects one after
another, in perfect prioritized order.
Until I came to a project called “do marketing (for teaching resources).” It had a list of things to do, like ‘make 50
quotes for Instagram’ and ‘make Pinterest ad calendar through March,’ and a
bunch of other stuff that seemed like it was important at the time. The ‘do marketing’ project got off to a
seemingly innocuous start… I spent two days making images for my Instagram (I
was super into it, and I freaking LOVE Canva), and then I organized the
data from my promoted pins and made some new product images for Pinterest.
But…. at some
point, around the fourth or fifth day of the project, I just became
overwhelmed.
I didn’t know
how to progress. I had done all the fun
and easy tasks. I was bored of working
on the same kind of thing for too many hours in a row. When I looked through the rest of the list, everything
either seemed way too big to be do-able, now seemed unimportant, or seemed like
I had already made a good amount of progress in a related area, so why bother? I wasn’t even sure what the point of this
project was any more. What was I trying
to accomplish here again? Have I already
finished and just don’t realize it? I
started spinning my wheels, stopping and starting different unrelated tasks, and
spending more time deciding what to do than doing it. I was swamped.
>> A river with no boundaries becomes a swamp.
<<
The river has
always been a method of conveyance- for going places and sending your stuff out
into the world. Rivers move along,
keeping everything else moving along with it. Even when our little kayak gets stuck on a
tree root, the current picks us up again as soon as we manage to unstick
ourselves. A river is the physical
embodiment of forward moving inertia. They
carve through rock and make gorges and canyons and waterfalls. Rivers get shit done.
The swamp,
not so much… Swamps are full of alligators and mud and nastiness and who knows
what else. Stagnant and slow moving
water smells horrible and breeds mosquitos.
And monsters, probably. Even the
very phrase “I’m swamped” means that you have a ton of stuff to do, are
massively behind, and are completely overwhelmed and will probably never be caught
up again, ever. Chefs use the term ‘in
the weeds,’ but the idea is the same- backed up, behind, drowning, basically...
fucked. We’ve all had projects that end
up like this… entirely out of control Swamp Monsters. And that’s what ‘do marketing’ turned into…
the Swamp Thing. All of those unfinished
tasks became quicksand… they sucked me in, and the harder I tried to escape,
the deeper in I was pulled, until I found myself mired in confusion and
doubt and despair. Swamped.
We need
boundaries. Little kids and teenagers
test them regularly. The gutters of the
bowling alley keep your ball in the your own lane. The edges guide us and keep us ‘in bounds.’ The lines on the road create lanes so traffic
can move more or less fluidly and without confusion (that’s the goal, anyway). Structure
keeps things moving in the right direction, the shores and edges and lines and
borders guide us along. When we’re
lucky, we get to define our own boundaries.
We get to choose where our river will flow and where its shores will be
defined. And being as clear as possible
about these boundaries is what keeps our river from becoming a swamp.
Now, don’t
get me wrong…pushing boundaries, coloring outside the lines, thinking outside
the box, I love these things. These are
the very building blocks of my life, (except that they’re not really ‘block’
shaped… they are the building amorphous blobs? of my life??) BUT, when I’m trying to get work done, these ‘blobs’
are not helpful. They belong in the
planning time, in the decision making, in the creative work that we do. When it’s time to actually deliver and make it
happen, we need the swift moving river… the swamp is certain death for anything
that needs to get done.
How to
un-swamp yourself right now (band aid/ quick fix version):
1. Stop
trying to get out of the swamp.
Quicksand is no one’s friend. It’s
going to take more effort than it’s worth, trust me.
2. Finish
anything urgent/ time sensitive, by any means necessary. That includes ordering Chinese food delivery
and/or drinking way too much coffee. It
also includes just pretending you totally forgot about it. (It’s not the recommended method, but I promise
I won’t tell anyone.)
3. Record
progress in each task so it can be picked up again. (This can be super informal- you just need to
know where you left off.)
4. Put the
entire quagmired mess to the side. Just
pretend it’s not there.
5. Take a
break. Do not think about the swampy
mess you left behind.
6. Choose a
different task/ project- one that’s simple & quick and finish this new
task/ project for a quick win & confidence boost. If necessary, repeat step 6 until you no
longer feel a queasy sense of disgust when you think about the Swamp Thing
project.
7. When you
have enough space between you and the Swamp Thing, take a critical look at the
original project:
What was the original goal of this project?
Is
it still a goal worth pursuing or does it need to be revised?
Does
it need to be broken up into separate projects?
Does
the whole thing need to be scrapped?
What
super specific tasks need to be done in order to reach this goal?
Spend plenty
of time planning and decision making so the project can move ahead smoothly.
8. Carry on
with your life and work on fixing the underlying swampy problem and making all
your projects into Rivers of Awesomeness.
How to fix
the underlying swampy problem and make all your projects into
Rivers of Awesomeness:
-Spend plenty
of time planning and organizing before tackling a project. Planning and doing are two separate
things. Stopping to plan or make
decisions during work time is a good way to get stuck.
-Clearly
define your role in a project- What tasks are you going to do? What tasks will
be delegated?
-Be specific
to a fault in planning your work tasks.
-Define the
boundaries of the project. What IS
involved in this project, and what is this project NOT going to be?
-Finish this
sentence: This project is finished when….
-Try to
identify and plan for obstacles before you start working.
-Prioritize
project tasks: What absolutely has to be done?
What would be nice to get done?
What is not really needed, but I’m writing it down anyway?
-Make sure to
leave room for creativity, pushing boundaries, thinking outside the box,
coloring outside the lines, whatever you want to call it. Make time for these things and your brain
will be less like to try it during focused work time.
* * *
(This post was written after spending many hours wandering from cafe to cafe, comfort eating & trying to figure out what to do next... in Chiang Mai, Thailand.)
