Topological Distorting (or Dave’s 10 Steps to Productivity)

ByDavid

Here’s how I wrote today’s column:

  1. On Friday, I sat down and wrote out the list of three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve combine two of them eleven things I have to get done over the weekend.
  2. I stared at the list.
  3. I looked up “prioritizing” online.
  4. I found the phrase “topological sorting,” which seems like an operations management concept related to prioritizing and critical paths.
  5. It’s more complicated than that.
  6. I tried to find an app that will tell me what to do first.
  7. I decided “topological distorting” was a clever play on words and a worthy title for today’s post.
  8. I looked that up too and found that “topological distorting” is actually its own completely unrelated thing and the picture representing this phenomenon reminded me of the Build Your Own Camera articles from the Boys Life magazines I used to read. 
  9. So I looked up Boys Life magazine and found it! It’s been renamed Scout Life magazine.
  10. I looked at the Jokes section. Some things never change. Like the jokes.

The key lesson here is just get to work.

Pick something to do. Anything. If your gut tells you to move on to something else, trust yourself.

And if someone is waiting on you, give that item a boost up the list.

If you’re the one waiting on you, don’t ignore yourself. Maybe it’s not urgent to someone else, but if it’s important  to you, set a time on your schedule. You deserve it. Make this appointment with yourself and keep it.

And get started. Set a timer, and when the timer goes off, honor your decision and move on to the next adventure.

I’m still figuring things out and it’s okay if you are too.

What do you think?

How do YOU prioritize?

See you tomorrow.

(Be generous: Please share this with someone who needs to see it)