What to Do First?

Sometimes I have way too many irons in the fire, pots on the stove and I don't know what to work on next. I have a list of what I have to do, what I want to do, what needs to be done now, what can wait a little while. But that's when I get stuck. What do I do first?

The decision to choose something to do became overwhelming. So much so that I spent a lot of time agonizing over what to do first. From that agony came frustration because I knew I needed to get busy. After spending an inordinate amount of time agonizing, wringing hands, tears and an eventual headache, nothing gets done. An hour spent over what to do could've been spent on doing something. A creative hour lost, one I'll never get back. I don't have time to waste time.

So I thought about it and looked for a container of considerable size. I found an empty mixed nut jar that I was keeping for something else. I needed a prompt or a catalyst if I ever got into the hole of "What do I do next?" again. I cut up paper I was recycling into strips and from my list, wrote a project on each slip. I folded them up one by one and dropped them into the jar.

Now I'm ready. If I feel stuck and don't know which project to tackle next, I'll shake up the contents of the jar and pick one slip of paper. That will be what I work on. Problem solved. No excuses. No procrastination. Once a project is done or a goal reached, I can cross it off my list and take the slip out of the jar.

Yay me!