I’m soaking in the last of the break before “it all starts again" tomorrow.
I had this wonderful moment earlier where all four of us were lying in bed, just cuddling in one big pile. My two little boys, the two parents. Leo pretended we were outside at night and he could see the stars overhead. It was warm, safe, there was no urgency to do anything, we all just reveled in it.
Of course, about 30 minutes later there were fights to break up, the kids were knocking over the freshly clean clothes onto the floor, Alan was wielding the rock-hard cast on his forearm as a gauntlet towards his little brother, the kids were demanding food but then only wanted candy, you know, the usual chaos.
I was thinking about how tonight instead of Sunday Scaries, we’re all going to be getting the MONDAY Scaries…so I wanted to pass along one really powerful neuroscience tip for coping with anxiety coming back from a break:
📝🥇MAKE A SHORTLIST OF WHAT YOU NEED TO DO AT WORK THE NIGHT BEFORE🥇📝
It sounds way too simple to work, right? But it’s MAGIC.
Make a very short list of what has to be done tomorrow/this week. It doesn’t have to be super long or particularly thorough. Just top-line things, both personal and professional, that you want to accomplish at your work day tomorrow or in the next few days (nothing that is a quarter-long project, okay?). It can be really cut and dry, like the blue post-it note example below.
WHAT you write on the list matters a LOT. Notice that I did not try to name any nitty gritty sub-tasks on this shortlist. What I noted here is more the protocol for how to proceed with the day, not every single tiny-ass little thing I need to do. I kept it to very simple open-and-closed things; nothing vague like “Improve the design system!” or whatever.
In the Work Stuff example above, I know that "checking Monday.com" does not simply mean just looking at it - it means check on the status of tasks w/ others, tidy up the board as needed, determine if meetings need to happen to move certain items forward, etc. In other words, there's a shitload of sub-tasks related to that...but I don’t need to write all that right now. Don’t write over 5 things in a category, and keep the total to under 10 things if you can. It needs to look easy and straightforward to your brain.
The majority of these tasks are just focusing on narrowing down what's ESSENTIAL to do for tomorrow or the next couple of days.
You can use post-its or a piece of paper that you keep near your eyeline if you’re into tactile lists. Me, I like using Google Keep for shortlists because I can thumb-tap notes into my phone at night before I go to sleep, and then they go with me wherever I go during the day.
Here’s the neuroscience magic: Our brains are so hilariously literal. Once you write down the task, it becomes defined. It can no longer be an amorphous sense of doom that is weighing you down and giving you nightmares about giant human-eating snakes (me last night). And a part of your brain actually feels like some amount of this task has been accomplished, that you’re ahead. And tomorrow morning, you have a simple and not-overwhelming set of instructions for how to go about your day to get you going. Isn’t that cool?
Well, I gotta go. I’m going to leave you with my take on an Irish blessing for the year ahead.
May your meetings be brief and your coworkers at peace.
May your Sunday Scaries grow few as your paychecks increase.
May the roughest workday of your future week be no worse than the best one of your past.
May your hands be busy with satisfying work and your heart filled with love for life.
P.S. Do me a favor and reply right now with your current challenge, desire or hurdle that you're looking for some help with. If I get enough interest in a particular topic, I'll make a post for it.