Great post! What you wrote makes me think of my ABC Time method. A is for those efforts that demand full attention; B is for those tasks that allow less focus but is about interaction with people; and the C slot/effort is the same as "enough minus one" - usually at end of day or week when I'm close to finishing but don't want to burn out all my candles. Good for work/life balance.
I have just spent 6 weeks living the consequences of not following this advice! (In my defense, I was already in the mess before I read your piece.) Yes, turns out taking on that project that tipped me from enough-0.5 to enough+1 was a bad idea. And no surprise, then life happened and I find myself at enough+2.5 and feeling all the pain that entails. Today I'm celebrating returning to enough-0.5 and the relief that will bring. And I'm promising that, this time (no, really!), I will learn this lesson. Thanks for an awesome piece that helped me make sense of the struggle I went through and hopefully learn from it!
I love, love, LOVE this post, Loleen. I struggle with the enough is enough but when it comes to my writing. It must be perfect before anyone sees it, which means it langushes in the digital file longer than it should. When I send it out and do not receive comments I immediately go to "it sucks " mode rather than my chisen reviewer trusts in my knowledge and experience and the piece is good enough. The minis one bit is an amazing discovery. I will try this system. Thank you for sharing.
I figure my "inner Loleen" must have been talking to me in January when I decided not to put in a proposal for a talk in January. Putting together my list today made me feel like I had already done that minus one.
I love this post, Loleen. Thinking about what to put in the "enough" category is somewhat freeing. Seeing the "free" space in my calendar is quite invigorating. (Yes, I'm catching up on reading your blog posts.)
Great post! What you wrote makes me think of my ABC Time method. A is for those efforts that demand full attention; B is for those tasks that allow less focus but is about interaction with people; and the C slot/effort is the same as "enough minus one" - usually at end of day or week when I'm close to finishing but don't want to burn out all my candles. Good for work/life balance.
What an interesting model - thanks for sharing this, Carole!
I like this a lot, Carole! Thanks for sharing.
Amazing! I’ll do the exercise tomorrow. I feel I my commitments might fall in the “enough” category but let’s see.
So glad you liked it, Alejandra!
This was fantastically helpful, as always!
Thank you, Anne!
I have just spent 6 weeks living the consequences of not following this advice! (In my defense, I was already in the mess before I read your piece.) Yes, turns out taking on that project that tipped me from enough-0.5 to enough+1 was a bad idea. And no surprise, then life happened and I find myself at enough+2.5 and feeling all the pain that entails. Today I'm celebrating returning to enough-0.5 and the relief that will bring. And I'm promising that, this time (no, really!), I will learn this lesson. Thanks for an awesome piece that helped me make sense of the struggle I went through and hopefully learn from it!
I am glad you are back to the -0.5 level, Gill!
I love, love, LOVE this post, Loleen. I struggle with the enough is enough but when it comes to my writing. It must be perfect before anyone sees it, which means it langushes in the digital file longer than it should. When I send it out and do not receive comments I immediately go to "it sucks " mode rather than my chisen reviewer trusts in my knowledge and experience and the piece is good enough. The minis one bit is an amazing discovery. I will try this system. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Bonnie!
I figure my "inner Loleen" must have been talking to me in January when I decided not to put in a proposal for a talk in January. Putting together my list today made me feel like I had already done that minus one.
OOOF the talk would have been in June.
Awesome! Future You will thank Past You!
I love this post, Loleen. Thinking about what to put in the "enough" category is somewhat freeing. Seeing the "free" space in my calendar is quite invigorating. (Yes, I'm catching up on reading your blog posts.)
Thanks Bonnie!