What to Do When You’re Unsure of What to Do
This happens to me at least once a day. Yes. Every. Single. Day.
There comes a time where I find myself literally standing at my desk and thinking to myself (sometimes aloud):
What am I supposed to be doing with myself right now?
Now, usually I’m thinking about the next task on the never-ending list of things to do but occasionally it’s a much more existential one—perhaps I’m thinking about bigger and more important topics related to my job, my work, and my vocation.
Typically it’s the former, not the latter.
When I’m unsure of what I should do next I’ve simply made it a habit to work on the very next thing that pops into my head. Really, it’s that simple. In fact, this is how this blog post got written.
As you know, I have been publishing daily content since 2001 and I have no plans on stopping. I know that I must do this at least once a day. Every single day.
So, regardless of the mountains of work that I have, I know that I will eventually and inevitably find myself at my current iteration of my desk, banging furiously on a keyboard as I struggle to convert ideas into cogent thoughts into words that make sense on digital paper.
And that’s what I did: Just a few moments ago I found myself in this exact predicament. The very next thing I thought was:
I need to write and publish a daily blog post.
So, I booted up my drafting table and started banging out this blog post. Now, I’ll hit publish after I find a decent picture for the featured image at the top.
… a few seconds later, I found one. I have no idea why a sled that was covered in snow is the one that “made sense” for this post, but, so be it! I’m going to hit the publish button now.
And that’s what I do when I’m unsure of what I should do. I just do.
We plan so that we know where to start. Then we adjust.
We might never be able to make everything according to the plan. Especially when it’s our first attempt. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t achieve our goals. Goals are not the same as plans. A plan is a path to a goal. A goal is the desired outcome.
As long as we know what our goal is, we don’t need to worry about our plans too much. We should be flexible as to what path will take us to our goal.
i love this! i love staying flexible!
for me, even my goals change... and they change pretty consistently. what i try to do is stick as-closely to the things that i know that i do really well and find folks who do everything else more amazing than me!
thanks for the comment! i'm going to be thinking about this for the rest of the day!
Awesome!
There are so many times when I am sitting in front of my computer and don't know where to start.
Then I default to this: writing.
it really is a good
defaultsetting. why the heck not!?What @ilonacodes replied really resonated with me. I filter the endlessly list of to-do things by projects, those which I committed to for the next few weeks. However, even when I have that direction I often struggle by overthinking on the decision of what should be the next step, which of those tasks will give me the most satisfaction or will cause the most impact.
I like the “I just do” mindset, but it’s something that must be reminded constantly throughout my day in order to stop overthinking and just start doing.
Something that has helped me recently is to read one of the Meditations on the Wisdom of Action whenever I feel stuck. Being reminded about the importance of action, in small but actionable thoughts, is often the right amount of motivation I need to start moving.
i'm going to have to check that out @albertoms! thank you for the recommendation!
I've been delegating a lot more lately (which is great) but now I find myself looking for things to do (which is no good). I don't really want to fill my time with "things", but rather high-leverage todo items that will move my business forward. Here are a few (albeit obvious) things that have helped me...
i do the "take frequent breaks" and it works like a charm. doing a little dance sometimes is all i need!
The best way to do it!
I don't have the same writing habit, but the things that I do end up publishing are normally put together really quickly.
yeah. i try to do it as fast as humanly possible... just get it out of my brain and into the
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