These days (on a Sunday afternoon or a Monday morning), I set my jobs for the week.
I use a project management software called Asana, which we've used for years. I'm not using it to its full potential when I do this, but it's an amazing and extraordinary task list.
I set things up for the days that I want to do them and for the priority that I want them to happen in, and sometimes there are some real sh*tty things I have to do in the week.
Sometimes, there are some sh*tty, horrible conversations to have or some difficult things that I don't want to do, and so when I sit on a Sunday afternoon or Monday, I could get down about that or worried about it, or I could rehearse conversations or strategies or ways that I'm going to do things, but I don't. What I do is compartmentalise.
And so, if the sh*t thing is coming on Thursday afternoon, later on, then I do whatever I need to do for it and then put it in a mental box and click the lid shut and then I go on with the rest of my life until it gets there and then I do it and then I click it shut again, and then I go on with the next thing.
It has honestly taken me years to develop this, but I developed it by talking to other people who are able to do it in jobs that are much more important, much more critical than mine.
I understand now that I can only face the problem in front of me right now, only face the challenge I have right here.
Anticipating the stress of something later or worrying about what might come (Perhaps, except for health and dying) are problems that make no sense to think about.
There is no point in rehearsing over and over a conversation that you're going to have with someone when they're not there because it will not go that way; it will go a different way when they're there.
By all means, be prepared and by all means have your facts, but then shut the box and only open it again when you're in that place, and then when you're finished, close it again.
It takes practise over years I think that compartmentalisation becomes more and more important the more scattered our lives become.
Blog Post Number - 3969
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