When you’re ready to stop, do just one more thing

Yesterday was one of those days filled with a lot of non-critical errands and tasks that all needed to get done relatively soon.  I have a lot of days like that – any particular task could get put off for a day or two without dire consequences yet they add up to become overwhelming.  It’s also pretty easy to stop when you get tired under these circumstances.  Sometimes that’s the right thing to do and sometimes you can find that you have untapped reserves with the right approach.

So yesterday, that’s what I did.  When I got to that point of ‘well, maybe that could wait to tomorrow…’ I got up and did just one more thing on the list – since that was making an apple pie from the rapidly spoiling apples I’d picked earlier in the day, maybe it would have been healthier to wait.  However, it turned out I wasn’t that tired after all – as the pie crust got made and chilled, the apples peeled and sliced and the whole thing baked. And yes, it was delicious! It turned out I could manage to bring up boxes from the basement too. Strangely enough, doing just one more thing turned into doing about three or four more things.

I am so much more productive when I take this approach you would think that it would be easy to make it a habit. It isn’t. But I keep hoping and trying.  And it keeps working – whether it’s stuck energy or not knowing where to start, somehow doing just one thing seems to move me back into the flow.

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