Okay, so you’ve collected everything in your head and got it into a trusted system, in this case, Office 365. You’ve decided what it all is (actionable or not) and organized it into projects lists in OneNote, reference material in OneNote and context-based task lists in Outlook. And you’ve gone over those lists and used your intuition, now unburdened by the worry that you might be letting something important fall through the cracks, to pick out the most important, highest “return on investment” tasks that you can do right here, right now. So what’s next?
Well, as Nike says, Just Do It.
This sounds glib, but I mean it. This is part where you let go. There’s a state of mind called Flow that you hear discussed a lot in athletic contexts, but it applies to every walk of life. Flow happens when you’re doing something challenging, but that you feel confident you can do. You’re fully engaged, time seems to disappear and the dancer becomes the dance. It’s amazing when it happens. You’re focused and giving 100% of your time and attention to something you feel strongly about doing.
And it’s worth pointing out that you can only get to Flow if your brain can let go of everything else, at least temporarily, for the duration of the task. That’s why we do all the work of thinking ahead of time. Now is not the time to think.
Now is the time to do.
So now, if you’ve been following along with this series, go and do. Look at your lists, pick a few high-value tasks (or a slew of have-to-be-done tasks you’ve been avoiding) and give yourself to action completely. You may find yourself finish with a high that brings you back again and again for more.
Jeff Kirvin, PEI
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