The habit of Zooming out.

How to get more time and some breathing room.

Everything doesn’t need to get done right now.

But sometimes it feels like it does. It drives me crazy when it feels like I have 5 days of work to do and I need to get it all done today.

When I start to feel unfocused, or overloaded. I remind myself that that is an illusion.

And I zoom out.

Here’s how I do it.

1. Collect small similar tasks into a 2 hour sessions worth, with a desired outcome.

2. Breakdown big tasks into smaller 2 hour tasks with a desired outcome.

3. Schedule these tasks over the next 10 days. (I leave up to 100% margin at times for the tasks to over flow, i.e I might schedule up to 4 hours for a 2 hour task)

4. Have a place to collect all the tasks that I’m thinking off that I don’t have to be done over the next 10 days.

Instead of having too much to do in the next 2 days, I now have a clear plan for the next 10 days with comfortable breathing room. This breathing room keeps important tasks in soft focus while I laser focus on one thing at a time.