A growing number of external challenges (e.g. always connected, overtasked, unclear future, etc.) — does drain some people, but not the others. The answer may be offered by often unnoticed destructive emotions linked to gain-oriented activities. Or rather our perceived dependency on their outcomes.

Is it overtasking? Or our reaction to it?

A tremendous amount of our mental energy is misused on loops of underlying worries, controlling thoughts, reactions to people and deviations from desired scenarios. E.g. it is not the stream of incoming emails that overwhelms, but numerous destructive emotions that go unchecked with it: the fear of missing important emails/demonstrating incompetence/getting fired, anger followed by depression for inability to cope, clinging to money, good position, etc. If neglected and stockpiled, these emotional undercurrents may lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout.

However, the tasks we miss, cannot deliver or do not like, — do not have to drain our energy. It is us who turn these neutral actions into energy black holes. Or rather they are caused by habitual responses of our mind we left unchecked.

The state for effective time-management

Our inability to adequately respond to overtasking is also majorly caused by unchecked emotions. We cannot say “no”, properly prioritize, establish scope boundaries, delegate.

Destructive emotions interfere with our ability to define acceptable and effective workload. Our choice of tasks, tools, interactions with people, any external logistics, — are compromised by both obvious and underlying agitations.

Caring for our state of mind may, indeed,
seem as excessive burden our busy schedules cannot fit.
However, it may offer the answers we seek
to prioritize and manage our workload sensibly.

This post an abstract from the book coming in 2019.