I use analogies as often as walmart cashier says "have a nice day". (Did you see? See what I did there?). One of my favorite analogies for the chaotic amount of juggling of demands and deliverables I manage daily at work and elsewhere, alongside my go-to 'spinning plates' description, is of being "as harried as a short-order cook during a lunch rush with no waitress or cashier." I can get busy, really busy, 'fragmented' busy. I am typically operating in high-interrupt environments and I'm dealing with 'immediate need' issues cropping up and obscuring everything I planned to do in the first place. This is at work and when I'm with my kids, and pretty much most of the time in between. I'd say that, sans sleep hours during which I'm truly asleep, I'm doing my best to do 1.5 to 3 things at once.
What amazes me is that I manage to pull it off. Not that I manage to "pull off" actually, successfully accomplishing multiple things at once... it's that I manage to pull off hiding how immensely overwhelmed I really, really become. It's all an act. And a pretty bad act at that. Only those closest to me have insight into the frustrations and struggles I feel in those instances. And sometimes feel just with starting the day knowing they're likely going to happen.
I'm balancing the responsibilities of being a VP in the circumstances of my team's couplex code environment. I'm going through a divorce from someone who is overwhelmingly immersed and accustomed to being playing the victim in any winning situation. I'm attending to the emotional needs of 12 year olds who are constantly showing themselves to be doing far better then their mother is, yet sometimes struggling with the emotions that come from that fact. And I'm trying to maintain my sanity while the myriad of things outside of that trifecta surface: A mother having surgery. "Craigslisting" some kids furniture after Christmas and coordinating with buyers, Fixing flat bike tires. Grocery shopping, laundry, stopping for gas.
My new morning routine of listening to inspirational messages includes some time management related material, and one of the ideas I've embraced is slowly helping out. It's one that leads me back to the view that I wanted to adopt and retain last year: Focus on three key things in my life. And I am realizing too that I can do this every single day... for the events of that day.
One of the points this takes into consideration is that you have to triage and determine what the most effective use of you time might be when you look at anything you need to address. AND recognize the ROI. Find the one that's the top ROI, and do it. As for the rest, well, leave it aside. Get the one thing done, then come back and look again at what's before you, and start on the one that'll have the biggest results.
I'm adopting a new response: "I don't know". It beings sentences that can end with "... but I'll find out when I can" or "I'll have to get back to you as soon as possible", and leaves it at that. I'm learning to push back and starting to get more comfortable with it. I like saying "I don't know", and I never did before.