Nothing gets me more excited about working then reviewing my projects list and seeing all of these super awesome projects that I have on it – that is, until I start getting overwhelmed at the number of them. Just by looking at the list it doesn’t seem like that much. I have, say, 10 projects all of which are pretty exciting. I feel like I can just knock some out and move right along. I want to jump to the end and have the awesome finished product. It seems reasonable. They all seem doable. But then time passes and I don’t get them done.

When reviewing my  list, I like to imagine myself doing the project. I can see myself working on my new ebook or building my new robot. I imagine myself totally sucked into the project that time is forgotten and I just work, completely focused, until I am finished. This is what gets me all excited. I am in love with the dream of this efficiency. I love the idea of complete focus, going from one project to the next without getting distracted by the latest cat videos on YouTube. I dream of crossing each project off my list and moving on to bigger and better projects.

So back to reality. Here is what really happens when I sit down to work. I may pick my first task and start working on it. Then a thought pops into my mind about some other project and I have to stop and take notes on that project else I forget the awesome idea I just had about it. I might then get back to the original project, but not without some other distraction or stray thought. I rarely reach the level of focus that I have when I visualise myself working. I do occasionally, and I take good notes on how and why those situations arise, but most of the time, my brain is not all the way there. I am chasing efficiency and never ever getting there.

I think a lot of people chase efficiency. This is why the productivity gurus can make so much money. This is the universal struggle that anyone with a project list faces. How do we align the way to actually work to the way that we wished we worked? Can we do more then just chase efficiency?