“Seize today, because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

~ 75 year old man participating in my doctoral study

It is important to tune in and know when we are over-working ourselves, and need to put things onto tomorrow’s to-do list. Life is a marathon, afterall, not a sprint. But it is equally important to be realistic about our to-do’s and responsibilities and to know when it is time to just buckle down and do what needs to be done. How often do we think, “oh man I’ll just do this tomorrow?” “I want to take it easy today, I’ll just put this off until tomorrow.” And then tomorrow comes and slams us with more work, and so we put other things off until tomorrow and the next thing we know, we’re swimming in anxiety because all of tomorrow’s tasks have now come to a heads, and half of them were due yesterday.

Think big picture. Break your tasks down into “must-do’s” for the day… and then sit down and do them, even if your head is swimming with thoughts of climbing trees or your belly fills with anxiety over all that you have to do. Set a realistic intention for your work that day and follow through. That way, you’ll feel good about your productivity, and if tomorrow slams you with more work, you’ll be able to deal with it and have some time off at night… and if tomorrow’s work is a pleasantly light load, then guess what, those trees that you were daydreaming about yesterday will be that much more fun to climb. Who doesn’t enjoy a nice build up before the climax?