Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world. In 2023, 104.65 million passengers flew through the Atlanta airport according to Airports Council International (ACI). There are nearly 2,700 flights coming and going through the hub on a daily basis. Yes. Daily. Imagine having to coordinate all that coming and going.
Of course, for many of us, orchestrating the litany of personal, family, and professional obligations that fill our days can start to feel like you’re an air traffic controller of sorts. It’s no wonder we fall into bed exhausted at night even as our heads spin through the hoops we’ll need to jump through when the sun rises the next day.
Sure, some days feel more like you’re navigating “Hartsfield-Jackson” and other days are more like a small executive airport on the scale of busy coordination. Regardless, finding a way to balance the demands on your time and resources is important.
Consider everything you have on your plate today. What activities (or actions) will help you feel accomplished or successful if you complete them today? It may be closing out a big task like putting the finishing touches on your new website, or it may be something more simple such as getting dressed and getting yourself put together before lunch.
There isn’t a right answer or formula. It’s about what you need to feel like you’ve managed to make progress and accomplished something in the hours between when you woke up and when you climb back in bed. When you’ve identified whatever that is, make space to get it done.
Whether it’s the tasks you’ve identified above or it’s the full kit and caboodle of your to-do list, assess how much you need to do versus what you can delegate to others.
Do you need to get the dog to the groomer on your own or can your teenage (and driving) son take that on? Do you need to be available to meet with the vendor at the office or can someone on your team field that meeting and send you a summary of findings and recommendation later? Identify your support resources and use them!
Could someone else bake your daughter’s birthday cake? Sure. That doesn’t mean you need to delegate baking the cake to someone else if you want to bake the cake yourself. If you find baking to be therapeutic, or at the very least, enjoyable, then bake the cake. If you want to do this special thing for your kid, then do it.
Part of feeling complete and whole at the end of a busy day is making space for the things we enjoy and desire – not just the things we feel obligated to do.
Some delegation will involve other humans. Your partner can handle the evening carpool. Your assistant can take on these tasks. Your local favorite take-out joint can tackle dinner tonight if you need meal prep off your proverbial plate. You can also use technology to automate tasks and simplify processes.
Set aside time to schedule a week’s worth of social media posts and let tech push them out in a timely manner. Have ChatGPT summarize the stack of meeting notes in your inbox so you can get the gist of the conversation without wading through the pages of minutes.
None of us can sustain high focus and energy throughout a full day. Identify your patterns and work with them. Are you more focused and alert in the morning? Are you slow moving to start with a burst of attentive energy in the afternoon? Do you feel a drop off around mid-day with a second wind coming later?
Plan your day to take advantage of your peaks and reserve your ebbs for breaks, reflection, and tasks that don’t require a lot of oomph or brain power.
Conventional wisdom says, “Success begets success.” As adages go, this one has some meat to it. Look over your to-do list and pick something that you know you can quickly and easily complete. It might be a task of lesser importance if we were to prioritize – or it may be a big one. Either way, it should be something you know you can start and finish with plenty of time left in your day to tackle other tasks on the list as well.
Just come back from vacation? Maybe the task you pick is weeding through the pile of messages in your inbox. You can quickly delete the marketing missives and newsletters you don’t need (or at least file them for later reading). You can forward messages to others that can answer them better. You can flag missives you need to follow up on. You can reply where you need to reply. More importantly, you can start and finish this task in a reasonable timeframe if you don’t feel the need to read every word in every message.
Take a deep breath and enjoy the “no new notifications” status of your inbox. That sense of accomplishment can be the little confidence boost you need to complete the next thing on your list…and then the next.
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