I love Marshall Goldsmith’s blog over at the Harvard Business School Discussion Leader site. I read his Sept. 8/08 post this morning and it hit a nerve as I’m feeling especially overwhelmed and unable to keep up with commitments. This particular post is called “Become a More Effective Leader by Asking One Tough Question.”

Goldsmith discusses why some of us “drop the ball” and fail to address issues, make changes, achieve goals etc. His answer is the part that spoke to me:

“the answer has to do with a daydream. … The daydream goes like this:
I am incredibly busy right now. In fact, I feel as busy as I have ever felt in my life. Sometimes my life feels a little out of control. But I am dealing with some very unique and special challenges right now. I think the worst of this will be over in a few months. Then I am going to take a couple of weeks to get organized, spend some time with my family, start my ‘healthy life’ program, and work on personal development.”

And I thought I was the only one who felt this way! Goldsmith’s answer is challenging, though. He says “ask yourself this tough question: What am I willing to change now? Not ‘in a few months.’ Not ‘when I get caught up.’ Now.”

He recommends listing your “personal improvement” to-do items and if you can’t motivate yourself to get started on an activity within two weeks, take it off your list, “and quit tormenting yourself.”

If it means enough to make you gasp at the thought of taking an item off the list (and I am defining “personal improvement” broadly for my purposes), it will require some reallocation of time and energy in order to make some headway. What is really important will rise to the top.

Any thoughts on how to accomplish this? If I receive ten or more tips, I’ll compile a “getting things done” cheatsheet. Have a productive day!