I received an email from a good friend the other day. In it was this sentence: "Do you have any info on time-blocking techniques? I’m so over committed it’s killing me."

First, you must know that this could just as well have been a sentence I could have sent to my coach because I know exactly how it feels. I've been there. I will probably be there again sometime in the future. It happens to all of us. So, in this post, I'd like to share my observations about over-commitment. First, what's going on. Second, what can be done.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

Every morning you are given a gift of time and energy. At the end of the day, those two are spent and cannot be recovered. Think of them as non-renewable resources. On a day-to-day basis, these are finite. Therefore, you are inherently constrained in the amount of work you can do in any one day.

Every day you face a multitude of opportunities that compete for your attention. Each requires a decision on your part. You can either say "yes" or "no". The problem is that they don't always come all at once. They come at you in small portions when they don't seem so ominous. So you say "yes", thinking what's the harm? But they accumulate. Every "yes" is a commitment. Every commitment is a chunk of the non-renewable resources of time and energy. Plus, because of the finiteness of these resources, every "yes" creates a corresponding "no" to something else. Just because you say "yes" doesn't mean the pie gets any bigger. All the other slices need to get smaller.

(I want to talk to the high-energy readers right now. If you're not high-energy, feel free to skip what I'm about to say and slide down to the next section)

Stop! That's right, stop. Stop what you're doing long enough to climb up to the cliff of the mountain so you can get a vantage point of the entire valley. You need to see what you're doing in the valley and how it is impacting your entire landscape.

There's nothing wrong with being high-energy. In fact, you are the reason the world goes around. You get things done. You make things happen. You inspire and compel great things to take place. But just like any asset, when it is taken too far it becomes a liability. Your high-energy could be a source of tremendous frustration and anxiety. It doesn't have to be that way. There is something you can do about it.

Before we move on, watch this video clip:

Charlie Callas was a comedian who displayed a humorous view of the plate-spinning routine. But it's not so funny when it's you in real life, is it?

WHAT CAN BE DONE

Get familiar with the concept of what I call "Proper Spin". Proper Spin is a habit of those who are becoming the fullest expression of their unique, God-given design. They are loving life in the present while mitigating regret in the future.

When you are properly spinning, you are aware of the following:

• You know what you're mission is
• You know your limits
• You know your strengths
• You know the consequences of "yes" and "no" (and if you don't, you take the time to discern them)

First, start with your mission. What are you trying to accomplish? If you cannot answer that, you will ride a perpetual rollercoaster of ups and downs, feeling on top of things one moment and panic of overwhelm the next. You have to know what you're trying to accomplish. When you do, you know how to frame every opportunity and which "yes" or "no" helps you accomplish that mission.

Knowing your limits is invaluable because it gives you the knowledge you need to make the best decisions in the moment. This requires a healthy dose of humility (especially for the high-energy personality). You simply cannot do it all. The sooner you acknowledge that, the better.

Knowing your strengths is invaluable as well because it lets you know your most leveraged use of time and energy. When you are operating within your Zone Of Excellence, you are at peak performance which means "little energy, massive output."

Knowing the consequences of an opportunity provides you with what you need to make a proper ROI assessment of that opportunity. You may not be able to tell the ROI in every case. For those opportunities, give yourself buffer time to make the right decision. Don't rush headlong into your "yes" or "no" until you understand the full extent of the time involved in the opportunity and the level of energy it will require of you.

So much more to say about this, but we will cover it in future blog posts.

ACTION STEP

• Write out your mission.
• Make a list of all your current commitments (or "plates").
• In light of your mission, ask yourself these 4 key questions for each plate:
• Is it a plate that must be spun?
• Am I the only one who can spin it?
• Am I good at spinning it?
• Do I enjoy spinning it?
• Keep spinning the plates that check all 4 boxes and either delegate or let the rest of the plates crash to the ground.

photo credit