Hello, and welcome to this 3rd episode in a small series I’ve called: “Plan and Succeed”.
Have you ever had that feeling at the end of the workday that you couldn’t really tell what you’d been doing all day?
Back in the days, I distinctively remember evenings where my husband asked how my day had been, and I responded something like “umm, ok, I guess?”. All the while I was frantically searching my brain to find out what I actually had done that day.
Sure, I’d been crazy busy attending endless meetings and responding to questions from colleagues and clients in between meetings. And whenever there was a small break somewhere, I had been checking and responding to emails.
But what had I actually achieved with all this busyness?
That was sometimes hard for me to put a finger on. For as a good friend phrased it: I’d been "running around like a headless chicken". An image that really says it all…
Because on a workday like that, I’d been racing through the day trying to tackle all the requests and tasks thrown at me. But I had totally lost the overview. And that left me with a vague, but unpleasant feeling of having lost control.
Having an overview sounds like a very simple thing, yet so many of us tend to want to rush right into action, that we overlook the essential starting point of creating an overview.
Do You Know Where You’re Going?
Maybe you remember my car analogy from episode 3, the one called “What Drives You – And What Drains You?”?
Well, have you ever been driving your car to a place where you were a little late and now you were not entirely sure which way to take?
And then you decided that you didn’t have the time to stop and look at the map or set the GPS. So, you just drove on, hoping that you were going the right way. But unfortunately, you got even more late, because you got even more lost before you decided that you really had to stop, and course correct.
The most effective thing would of course have been to get your overview and your bearings before you started out in the first place
And the second most effective thing would have been to stop at the time you realised you might be lost and get your overview back. Look at the map or set the GPS.
I’m sure you’ve guessed that I’m talking about my own experience here! And when it has happened, I have every time promised myself to always make sure to get an overview and set the directions before I start driving next time
So why do we keep ending up in these situations? Not only in traffic but also in the workplace and in life in general?
Can you see the wood for the trees?
We’re so busy getting work DONE, that we start racing off without being sure if we’re going in the right direction. Because often in our work, we can’t see the wood for the trees. We’re so busy dealing with immediate urgencies that we sometimes lose track of what our bigger objectives are.
Creating – and keeping - an overview is vital for succeeding with any kind of endeavour.
Because when you have an overview, you have the full picture. And then you can make clever and effective prioritizations.
And on top of that, you also create a sense of calm for yourself.
Because even if there’s a lot to do, and even if you might not realistically be able to do it all yourself, with an overview, you know you haven’t forgotten anything. Which is a fear that is often a big stress factor in itself.
And when you have an overview, you can prioritize and decide what needs to happen.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/19
Hello, and welcome to this 3rd episode in a small series I’ve called: “Plan and Succeed”.
Have you ever had that feeling at the end of the workday that you couldn’t really tell what you’d been doing all day?
Back in the days, I distinctively remember evenings where my husband asked how my day had been, and I responded something like “umm, ok, I guess?”. All the while I was frantically searching my brain to find out what I actually had done that day.
Sure, I’d been crazy busy attending endless meetings and responding to questions from colleagues and clients in between meetings. And whenever there was a small break somewhere, I had been checking and responding to emails.
But what had I actually achieved with all this busyness?
That was sometimes hard for me to put a finger on. For as a good friend phrased it: I’d been "running around like a headless chicken". An image that really says it all…
Because on a workday like that, I’d been racing through the day trying to tackle all the requests and tasks thrown at me. But I had totally lost the overview. And that left me with a vague, but unpleasant feeling of having lost control.
Having an overview sounds like a very simple thing, yet so many of us tend to want to rush right into action, that we overlook the essential starting point of creating an overview.
Do You Know Where You’re Going?
Maybe you remember my car analogy from episode 3, the one called “What Drives You – And What Drains You?”?
Well, have you ever been driving your car to a place where you were a little late and now you were not entirely sure which way to take?
And then you decided that you didn’t have the time to stop and look at the map or set the GPS. So, you just drove on, hoping that you were going the right way. But unfortunately, you got even more late, because you got even more lost before you decided that you really had to stop, and course correct.
The most effective thing would of course have been to get your overview and your bearings before you started out in the first place
And the second most effective thing would have been to stop at the time you realised you might be lost and get your overview back. Look at the map or set the GPS.
I’m sure you’ve guessed that I’m talking about my own experience here! And when it has happened, I have every time promised myself to always make sure to get an overview and set the directions before I start driving next time
So why do we keep ending up in these situations? Not only in traffic but also in the workplace and in life in general?
Can you see the wood for the trees?
We’re so busy getting work DONE, that we start racing off without being sure if we’re going in the right direction. Because often in our work, we can’t see the wood for the trees. We’re so busy dealing with immediate urgencies that we sometimes lose track of what our bigger objectives are.
Creating – and keeping - an overview is vital for succeeding with any kind of endeavour.
Because when you have an overview, you have the full picture. And then you can make clever and effective prioritizations.
And on top of that, you also create a sense of calm for yourself.
Because even if there’s a lot to do, and even if you might not realistically be able to do it all yourself, with an overview, you know you haven’t forgotten anything. Which is a fear that is often a big stress factor in itself.
And when you have an overview, you can prioritize and decide what needs to happen.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/19