Portrait of a Mad C.O.W.
How easy it is to let little things fill your day at the expense of your priorities! I can attest to this. Truly, I am not a sit-around-er. My life is filled with a lengthy “To Do” list and a frenetic “busy-ness” that has caused more than a few people to suggest that I consider ADD medication.
Actually, I’ve decided I have a case Mad COW Disease: C.O.W. as in a Chronically Overwhelmed Woman! Sadly, I know it’s an all too common affliction. (Face it, even in the yogic world there are plenty of tight-jawed Mad Gomukhas.) I want to get control, really I do. From Franklin to Stephen Covey, I’ve tried it. I am a connoisseur of time management books, calendaring software and daily planners. Yet most of the time, I feel like I’m not making much progress.
Like the hamster on the wheel, I run as fast as I can ~ often to the point of exhaustion. My “To Do” list alone overwhelms me. With countless line items and some that even merit a separate addendum ~ as in “run errands” (see other list for stops) or “Get ready for Christmas” (has its own spiral) ~ the list making itself is draining.
In a recent post, I shared an inspirational piece on priority management. (See The Mayonnaise Jar & the Golf Balls.) In that analogy, your daily time constraint is represented by a mayo jar. The jar can be easily filled with different things depending on how you do it. Golf balls represent “the big things,” your stated priorities. Sand is everything else. If you put the sand in first, you can’t get the golf balls in. But if you put the balls in first, THEN the sand simply fills in around the balls. Your stated priorities are upheld.
The story illustrates that if you aren’t conscious of your choices, your day gets quickly overrun by lots of sand. Wait, wait, I’m having a flashback! There was a soap opera that opened with sand passing through an hour glass while this authoritative voice-over said, “Like sand through the hour glasses so are the days of our lives.” Clearly, HE knew about this whole mayonnaise jar thing! (Okay, so maybe I DO need ADD medication.)
Enter the Sacred Six
A few months ago I discovered a fascinating motivational podcast. Morning Coach with JB Glossinger is a daily 15-minute pep talk and a great way to jump-start your day. (It’s available for free on iTunes.) In one broadcast, Glossinger shared Ivy Lee’s concept of the sacred 6, a method for making sure your priorities don’t get lost in the sand. The idea, as explained below by John Watson, is a well-known legend in the personal development lexicon.
“About a hundred years ago, Charles Schwab was in charge of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in the USA. Things were not going that smoothly so he asked Ivy Lee, an efficiency expert, for advice for himself and his managers to help them be more productive.
Lee told him that he would increase his company’s sales and the efficiency of his management team if he could talk to each man for about 15 minutes.
Charles Schwab asked: “How much will it cost me?”
Ivy Lee replied: “Nothing, unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you.”
He spent ten minutes with each executive and told them to follow the instructions below:
- In the evening, write down the six most important tasks that need to be done the next day and arrange them in order of importance.
- The next day, start the first task and finish it before starting anything else.
- After finishing the first task, start the second most important task. Finish it and then start the third and so on.
- After the day’s work, spend five minutes making a list for the next day. Unfinished tasks can be moved to the new list.
- Do this for the next ninety days and check the results.
Ivy Lee’s plan worked well with the executives of Bethlehem Steel. Charles Schwab was so pleased with the results that he paid Lee $25,000 a huge sum in the early twentieth century.”
Time Management Steps that Work by John Watson
As Watson notes, effectiveness is about doing the most important tasks even if minor tasks get left undone. “A merely efficient person may get lots of tasks done, but they may well not be the tasks that move their life forward.”
And there in lies my problem. I exhaust myself with low priority busy work which results in being ineffective and overwhelmed. I get stuck on the proverbial sandbar of life. But now, I have my shovel and pale (and just 6 scoops). I am ready for a change. Such are the Days of MY Life!
Days of Our Lives just passed and flashed in my memory! I loved that soap at 12:00 when my dad would come in for dinner, and after dinner before heading outside to work on the farm, we’d all sit around and watch that SOAP. Dad would take a short nap, but HE was in the room with us. I don’t think he ever knew what happened on the show, but it was a time together. My dad died at the young age of 39, so I don’t have a lifetime of memories since I was still in high school at the time. Such fond memories! I can picture it all!
You have such an ADD way of writing that makes us all smile and feel warm inside. Love ya – Carol
I’m going to give this a try. 90 days. six most important things.
here’s the list for tomorrow.
1. Meditate/ Pranayama
2.Play with Milo
3. Teach asana classes
4. Invert/ practice asana
5. Write. (edit five more pages).
6. Make squash soup.
[...] one of my favorite Crafter Blogs, I discovered this idea of the Sacred Six, or as I like to call it, Staying On Top of Your Shit. Schedules, no doubt, are teeming with [...]
I actually have ADD and although it leads me to very creative ideas it makes it nearly impossible to follow through and accomplish much of anything. This has been a source of great frustration for the last 40+ years until my family Dr. suggested I get an evaluation. Now I take medicine to help me focus. It is not perfect and there are side effects but I have been able to set and accomplish many of my life goals. I know people joke about ADD when they skip from subject to subject without a segue but that is like comparing the loss of your keys once in a while to having Alzheimers. It is not just being kind of quirky or energetic – it is really a very debilitating disorder and the people who are afflicted with it need your understanding and compassion. Okay I’ll get off of my soap box now.
I am sorry that my post came across as “joking about ADD.” It wasn’t intended to be that at all. It IS crappy when you feel misunderstood or marginalized.
Like you, I too have diagnosed ADD for which I take medication & have for years. Even so, it’s STILL quite obvious to others & a source of amusement to them & frustration to me. I relate to what you say, medication helps but it does not “fix” me.
I also have a son who is VERY ADHD (and on medication). He is one of 3 and the other 2 don’t have ADD. I want to share that I work in the school system, & I encounter MANY people who see ADD as “lack of self-discipline” (in me and other adults) and/or “poor parenting” in children who are over diagnosed according to them. This only makes those who are truly ADD feel worse about themselves.
Granted, there ARE doctors who over prescribe and there certainly diagnosed individuals with ADD whose “bad behavior” really is just the result of poor parenting. BUT there is also a very real population that HAS this condition & benefits from the appropriate meds & interventions.
That said, while I understand it’s how I am “wired” & in large part, difficult to change, I don’t want “it” to be how I am defined & more importantly, how I am limited. I am constantly searching for ways to more effectively manage my life & achieve MY goals. For me, I am constantly looking & pulling from lots of resources & try them out: from organizing books & articles to yoga to diet modifications to counseling to medications. Different things DO work for different people with varying degrees of success.
I know it’s not as simple as a short blog post on “The Sacred Six,” but it’s things like this which provide me with yet another tool in my box. It is my hope that sharing my discoveries may help someone else too in even the smallest way.