Smashing Bricks:
Learn to use visualization to prioritize, organize, and stop feeling overwhelmed!
These days, almost everyone is stretched too thin. When the number of projects, obligations, and chores start to pile up, it can literally feel like you are carrying around a ton of bricks. These bricks can become overwhelming, which can lead to lowered productivity, fear, and stress. When you try to focus on too many things at once, you may find that you can’t really focus on anything at all. While new opportunities are always exciting, taking on too much can make it impossible to finish everything, similar to the phrase, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. But there are ways to handle that ton of bricks, and that is by addressing your life one brick at a time.
Visualize each component of your life—each task, chore, obligation, hobby, and event—as a brick in the wall of your life. Some of these bricks weigh more than others. Some take more time and energy than others. Bigger bricks can be more pressing—heavier weights to bear. Take the time to visualize all your commitments and make them easier to prioritize. Here is how to get started:
Prioritize Your Bricks
Which bricks are heaviest and which are lightest? When you need to reduce the weight on your shoulders, make sure that you deal with the lightest, quickest, easiest bricks first. You may have heard about the old technique of making a to-do list and adding things you have already done, or adding easy tasks so that you aren’t overwhelmed, and know that you are making progress. Visualize yourself taking down one of the lighter bricks off your shoulders and smashing it to dust—your overall load is lightened with minimal effort, and you can go on to address heavier bricks of higher priority.
Know Your Bricks
Make sure that your bricks are your own. You may find that you are taking on the troubles, needs, and tasks of other people, unnecessarily making your own pile of bricks heavier and heavier. If you are already feeling the overbearing weight of your bricks, take stock, and make sure that the bricks you are carrying around are definitely your own. You can’t be helpful to other people if you are crushed under the weight of your own responsibilities. So deal with your stack of bricks first and then you can start helping others crush theirs.
There may be times when this works in reverse and your bricks are just too much for you. When this happens, it is important that you have people who can take some of the bricks off your back. This will give you the chance to get unnecessary burdens or tasks off your shoulders and lighten your responsibilities. Can you delegate small tasks to your spouse, children, or if work related to your employees? Getting those small bricks off your back will give you the freedom to pursue larger and more pressing matters.
Maintain Your Bricks
Take some time to yourself every day to assess and organize your bricks. Use this time to be in the moment and really put your bricks in the right place. If you are having trouble visualizing your tasks and duties, drawing your bricks on a piece of paper may help you see what is putting the heaviest weight on your shoulders. Once you have this image before you, you can decide which bricks to crush first, which ones you can delegate to a friend or helper, and which ones you can just drop. Compartmentalize. Break apart large bricks into manageable bits that are easier to crush in one day.
Crushing your bricks one by one will soon make your days easier and more productive and you will no longer feel yourself sinking beneath the weight of a brick wall!