Being overwhelmed

Answer:

Your question requires an in-depth understanding of how to deal with the million-dollar question, “how do I maximize my time and be most productive?” I’m going to give you a tip, rather than go into the depth of understanding how to allocate time to various projects and tasks and how to prioritize.

The tip:

Be goal oriented.

When you come in to your office in the morning and you feel overwhelmed with tasks: responding to emails, following up on phone calls, sending personal thank you letters, dealing with piled up mail which requires attention, scheduled meetings and more, usually this feeling causes you to waste a lot of time, because whatever you begin to do you feel there is still so much more to be done, your not sure if this is the right thing to do first and you end up moving from one thing to another and not really doing much to complete any of the items your dealing with rather touching upon items and not completing them and then jumping to another item and there again not completing that item, which becomes a vicious negative cycle, at the end of the day you feel you worked so hard and you’re not really sure what you accomplished because even those items you dealt with there is still so much left open-ended.

The best thing you can do in this situation is take a small piece of paper and write down several items you want to accomplish TODAY. It may not even be the highest level priority, but the mere fact that you will make a list of items to be done today and then you begin to do one at a time from A to Z make sure to finish it completely before moving to the next item, in no time will you feel in control and as a result you will most likely complete the list and then do some more.

 

Here is what I received recently:

Dear Rabbi Brod,

I recently heard a recorded lecture of yours about hatzlocho b'zman and found it extremely valuable and helpful. It is amazing how revolutionary such basic advice can be when it is expressed so clearly and decisively by someone who really gets it. Thank you.

Rabbi Yisroel Glick