The One Thing
How’s December? A series of social gatherings, task lists, holiday preparations and end-of-year meetings?
It’s a whirlwind. Or maybe a vortex that sucks you in and spits you out somewhere between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, hopefully in a relaxing chair and some peace and quiet.
Personally, I’ve been dashing between things, both personal and professional, and my saving grace has been the notion of “The One Thing”.
Whenever I have had the chance to sit down and focus, I’ve extracted The One Thing from my jar filled of All The Things, and solely worked on this until finished and then let the vortex sweep me away again until I next get a chance to dig into the next The One Thing.
It can be a liberating feeling, when the overwhelm of All The Things kick in, to reduce distractions and just go with the one, in that moment, most important thing to complete. Because, really, it’s all that you can do. There’s no time to second-guess yourself when the vortex attacks. And there’s definitely no time to jitter around trying to pack a bag of things – you just have to get out. You do the next right thing. You monotask. Save your skin and get out alive, in perfect timing for the popping of the Christmas Crackers.
How to Monotask
Pause, take a deep breath.
Write down 1 thing worth doing right now.
Do that 1 thing.
Cross that 1 thing out.
Go back to step 1 and repeat until you have reduced the list.