What to do when you have too much to do

This is from the "Getting Things Done" email I received this week, by David Allen:

"Folks, can we hear it for sloth, indolence, and procrastination?!"

That's how I have started many of my seminars over the years. And it always gets thunderous applause and raucous cheers. I think it hits a nerve.

Why? It seems that few people have many good reference points for self-forgiveness and a sense of humor in this world of increasingly too much to do.

I've been working on both (self-forgiveness and sense of humor) for decades now, and still find it quite challenging at times. But you know, when I'm in a loving, whole, and healthy state of mind about myself and about life, everything's cool. Where I am, doing what I'm doing, is exactly where I need to be and what I need to do. God's on [his] throne, the mail is coming, my dog loves me, and tomorrow is just fine right where it is, not showing up until then.

And I don't seem to get to that wonderful state of mind by working harder and faster. Sometimes it helps, but more often it just perpetuates the angst.

I get there by letting go, softening my grip, getting quiet. That's when I can get a peek between the seconds, and in the particularly delicious moments experience the grandeur of just being. That doesn't happen by working harder or smarter. It doesn't happen by working at all. It just happens. I'm not my work. I'm not even my life. I do work, and I have a life. The more I'm able to see myself and my experiences from that neutral place of authorship and ownership, the more I see them for the Shakespearean stage they're playing on, and can enjoy the show (and how I let myself get wrapped up in it)!

But there is a skill, an awareness, a knowing about letting it happen, recognizing the value of those moments, and loosening up the stranglehold we often put on too many things that don't deserve the seriousness. Then those things that just happen, happen more often.

You can't know sloth, indolence and procrastination without having a reference point for the opposites of those. It's just the polarities of human experience. And if you actually did get it all done, on time, time would be out of a job.

Lighten up. We're all in this together. You're fine.