I Can Do One Thing at a Time
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Have you ever been overwhelmed with the amount of work on your plate? At a past job, I was hired to support 3 people. That number grew to 5 people. And then it grew again to 10 people. When the number increased to 10, there were times pretty much every day when I would receive so many requests in a short period of time that my brain would start to freak out. I would feel my heart racing and thoughts telling me the workload was impossible would weigh me down. In short, I would start to panic.
Thankfully, after a few seconds of panic, my rational brain would come back online and whisper a consoling thought. That thought was, “I can do one thing at a time.” I would then briefly have visions of other times when I felt overwhelmed and remembered that those times always passed eventually. So with my prefrontal cortex back in charge, I would look at all the requests on my plate and work on the one that was the highest priority. “I can do one thing at a time.” Once that was finished, I would move on to the next highest priority. “I can do one thing at a time.” And then the next highest priority, and so on. That one sentence…”I can do one thing at a time”…reminded me that if 6 new tasks just came in, I didn’t have to do all 6 of them right away. I could only really do one of them. Since one is more manageable than 6, I was always able to calm down pretty quickly and not waste time and energy worrying about the work. I would instead give that time and energy to the actual work. And you know what? By doing one thing at a time, everything was always completed.
If you’re ever similarly panicked, remind yourself that you can do one thing at a time. My hope is that by consciously bringing that rational thought to your mind that you will also experience the calming effect that it always produces in me.
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Calmly Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team