How To Be Productive When You Are Overwhelmed By Your Growing To-Do List
Posted on May 05, 2023 by Hitomi Taguchi, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Are you feeling inundated with things to be done, or going around in circles without getting anywhere? How do you get back on track and move forward?
Freedom, independence, and opportunities are wonderful privileges, but they come with risks and responsibilities—especially during uncertain times. Many of us are not taught how to navigate this vast landscape of possibilities and unknowns. I used to secretly wish a fortune-telling sage would just tell me what I am supposed to do with my life so I could focus on planning my next steps.
You could say I was trapped in an entry-level-job type of thinking, where a clear goal is given to me and my progress is structured in a linear sequence: take aim, launch, assess, improve, and repeat.
However, life is not a linear process, and there may be multiple goals being juggled at the same time. Nobody knows what the future may hold (e.g. pandemic!). But because of that, life has the potential to take you far beyond any imagination.
So how can you get there?
Consider your life like a tree with hundreds and thousands of growing branches. Your life started at the base of the tree trunk and has been shaped by the branches you chose to grow into. You have been making choices all your life since you were a small child, and that is how you became who you are today.
The transformation of your life over your lifetime has been and will be shaped by which branch you choose to act on.
With that in mind, how will you choose which branch to focus on next?
You can’t reverse calculate the choice when the future is unknown. For a more agile, illuminating, and powerful intelligence, you need to make choices based on what makes your life worth living—just like a tree would grow towards the direction of the sun. What is important to you? What feels good? What pulls at your heart? Choices that honor your answers to these questions will expand your perspectives, help you learn, and gradually take you to an abundant way of living filled with presents waiting for you to unwrap.
On the other hand, when your choices are based on reactive, fear-based habits, the future will be shaped by distress, doubt, and pessimism. You will still live but like a tree infected by pests and shriveling with illness. The world will become a dangerous, deceitful, and dark place to live.
Letting go of the need to understand where you are headed and making choices based on what is important to you now is a process of building self-trust and confidence, and one of the most liberating gifts you can give yourself. Remember, the moment you start the process is the moment you start getting closer to clarity and fulfillment.
If you have difficulty putting this into practice, go to my profile page and schedule a free consultation with me—let’s discuss what this article might be missing for you.
