Managing Task and Project Anxiety Pt. I

There are silver linings to this whole quarantine thing, like the fact that Mr. Heid and I are knocking out some projects at the house. Before the quarantine, we felt like there were so many things on our plate. There still are so many little tasks and plenty of big projects and we’ve found ourselves overwhelmed by the decision of which task we should take on.

I’m no expert when it comes to getting things done — I procrastinate on some projects just like the next gal. But I do have a few practices that help me feel less overwhelmed and more accomplished, and I hope they’ll help you, too!

In this section, I’m covering the list aspect of managing your tasks. Hopefully, you’ll gain some insight into the importance of a task list, how to define and categorize your tasks, being mindful of yourself when making your task lists, and shedding the notion of “wasting” time.

LIST YOUR TASKS | I know… you saw that coming, BUT keeping an organized list of the things you need/want to get done is the best start. I keep running lists in Google Sheets. I share one with Mr. Heid that includes separate tabs for house maintenance, yard maintenance, gathering, vacationing, cleaning/organizing, house decorating, etc. and one for just me that includes blogging, crafting, things I want to try, studio organizing, and more. Last year, I had a whole sheet dedicated to wedding planning.

When you make your lists, it's okay (and smart!) To have sub lists. For example, my main tab could say “Yard Maintenance” with a project titled “Clear the yard.” Well perhaps before we clear the yard we have to mow the lawn and fix the lawn mower, and fixing the lawn mower may have even more subtasks such as changing the oil or replacing the battery. In this example, the project list may look like this:

Project: Yard Maintenance

• Clear the Yard

  • Mow the Lawn

    • Pick up sticks

    • Fix the Lawn Mower

      • Change the Oil

      • Replace the Battery

  • Research landscape companies

When you start listing out your items, you may feel your anxiety increase a little at the number of tasks and want to start one immediately, or you may stumble across a smaller task and think, “Oh, I can knock that out right now!” I’m here to say, DON’T. It’ll be so tempting, but I promise you’ll feel so much better if you finish the list first.

NO ITEM IS TOO SMALL | Imagine this — you have 30 minutes of free time. You can get a good amount done in 30 minutes, but how do you choose? You sit and think about which task is the right thing, the most important thing, the most productive thing to do in that time. Fifteen minutes later, you’ve done nothing and feel like you’ve wasted time, begin to panic that you only have 15 minutes left, and keep going like this until your free time is gone.

If this hasn’t happened to you — that’s so great! It has definitely happened to me, and I’ve been working to change those thoughts and to keep that free-time anxiety at bay. How?

In my spreadsheet, I have a tab that contains only small tasks. This includes journaling, self-care activities, yoga, meal planning, meditation, etc. On my good days when I have free time, I do one of the things on this small task list or my big task list without consulting my spreadsheet — no second thoughts about it.

BUT keeping this small items list helps me when I’m not thinking clearly and instead am on the verge of being in the scenario above. When I have free time and can’t think of something to get done, but want to get something done, then I choose something from my small-tasks list because doing so will help me feel accomplished.

IT’S OKAY TO DO NOTHING | Note that I said, “when I want to get something done.”

I feel like this one heavily ties into the next one, but I’m separating them to make sure it’s stated clearly — DOING. NOTHING. IS. OKAY. You are not wasting time by doing nothing if doing nothing makes you feel good. There are times when we need to be still because we’ve been doing everything or going a mile-a-minute — and that’s okay. Watching a movie? Taking a nap? Chilling by the pool? Don’t think of these things as wasting time, think of them as taking time for you — to help you recharge, breath, decompress, and find balance.

YOU ARE WORTHY | The biggest thing that I’ve struggled with is whether or not some of the tasks on my list are worth my time. I love organizing, but what impact does organizing my doodles into one notebook have on the world? Our lives on earth can be short, and the thought of wasting time on something seemingly trivial has made me feel my fair share of anxiety.

However, just because something is seemingly trivial doesn’t mean that it actually is. Lately, I’ve taken to asking myself if the tasks will bring me joy, ease my mind, help me relax and de-stress, or put me in a better position for another task. If the answer is yes when you ask yourself these things, then do it!

So, sure my doodles could sit around on scrap pages or in other notebooks forever and be fine, but organizing them helped me declutter (always a plus in my book), reminded me of my raw creativity that I’ve put aside for assigned creative projects, sparked inspiration for how I could use old doodles in new designs, and gave me a book that I’m proud of. I shared the book with my husband so that he could see another side of me.

Tasks on your list may be trivial and pointless in someone else’s eyes, but they’re important to you and you’re worth pleasing.

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE | There have been some circumstances where people say you shouldn’t start planning for something if you aren’t 100% sure it’s going to happen. That may be true for them, but it’s not true for all of us.

Mr. Heid and I had been talking about marriage for a few years and I knew the proposal should be coming around our 5th year of dating. So at the beginning of that 5th year, I started a list of people we might want to invite to our future wedding. Shortly after he popped the question, we knew we’d have to book our major vendors pretty quickly and that we’d need an estimated headcount. I told him about my list, and he was relieved that I’d already started it! We added and removed people, counted them up, and were ready to explore vendor options. Because I started this list early on, we had a nice amount of time to research, interview, and book our top choices.

I also have a whole spreadsheet dedicated to gifting for the holidays. There’s a column for each family member and friend that we regularly give gifts to and a column for gift ideas we think of throughout the year. I even add notes the moment I learn something new that could help in the gifting department, like the fact that my father-in-law doesn’t like pimento cheese (and I make him a food basket every year)!

SAY NO | When friends and family ask us for assistance with their tasks, we do our best to help out. But occasionally, someone will reach out to us for something that requires a good bit more time and we have to say no. Mr. Heid and I have a pretty busy social life (and we love that), but when we do finally have downtime, we don’t want to fill it with something that our hearts aren’t into — like a sportsball design project haha!

REVISIT YOUR PROCESS | I titled this post “Managing Task and Project Anxiety” because in some cases you can’t beat the stress entirely. You may get so good at following this process (or a process of your own design) that you start to auto-pilot. But there may be a time when some of that anxiety drifts back in. Just remember that you aren’t letting yourself down — you’re human. Just go back to your steps with mindfulness and deliberation.

Who else out there keeps an extensive running task list? I’m no expert but I hope this helped some of you!

In Part II, I’ll cover how to analyze your tasks, choose where to start, and what you can do when you hit a road bump!

xo,

K