If you’re spinning plates, keep ‘em spinning
I tend to operate by spinning many plates at once. I’m not the kind of person who has one single focus and spends all of their time immersed in that. Given that I am actively managing and growing a business and working hard to delight multiple clients, it’s inevitable that I have a number of projects ongoing at any one time.
Sometimes, it can be hard to keep them all going. A setback in one can derail another. But here’s something that I’ve found to be very useful as a daily practice, whether it’s done at the start of the working day or at the end, with a view to teeing up the work for the following day.
Identify the next tangible action for each significant project and do what you have to do to get that done.
This is a powerful ritual on two fronts. First, it ensures that I’m making progress on my most important projects every day. It generates a real sense of momentum. Momentum generates more energy and more self-belief. Secondly, it forces me to think, at least daily, about what the next physical action is for those key projects. Sometimes we can get bogged down when we’re not clear on what the next step is, and most of the time that’s a function of our avoidance of hard questions and/or clear thinking.
A quick note: I use this for my ‘significant’ projects. Everyone will have their own definition of this. At present, I have five. All of those involve serving fee-paying clients. At times, I might have one or two less, or maybe a couple more. But once you go beyond that number, I think your focus will suffer. As it happens, per the GTD definition, I have approximately fifty projects defined. But it doesn’t bother me if some of these are left untouched for several days.
Daily progress on my most significant projects, with clarity of thought and purpose. Any ritual that produces that is worth the effort.