When the Tasks Are Stacked Deep

The other day I was in a fetal position on my couch in the basement.  From that place in the room I could see the huge wall turned into one big writing bulletin board filled with assignments, my computer waiting for fingers to tap on the keyboard, papers piled on papers on my desk, one dirty plate, two coffee cups with a few swigs of cold brew at the bottom, a very still treadmill, dirty carpet, dusty piano, and the laundry hamper sides bulging out.

That’s when my friend called me, and I whimpered, hello.

She’s a fixer.  So she said, Here’s what you’re gonna do:  Toggle.  Pick the two most important tasks and toggle between them until they’re done.  Then pick the next two and toggle between them until they’re done.  Get it? 

She is so smart.  It really worked.

Yesterday I felt overwhelmed by tasks again, so I skipped paralysis and toggled all morning long, and I got a crazy amount done.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and did one chore and then toggled to the next for 10 minutes.  For four hours!

In that time I typed several medical reports, sorted a pile of papers that I was sure contained something I would go to jail for if it wasn’t taken care of today, wrote four devotionals to submit to a Sunday school magazine plus a guest blog post, loaded the dishwasher and ran it –twice (it was that kind of weekend) and used the lint roller to clean the living room after Caleb’s new blanket molted all over it.

Solomon says, “A brother is born for adversity”.  (Proverbs 17:17  NIV)  Adversity is anything bad or evil or unpleasant that comes against us, and I say the to-do list feels a bit on the evil, I’m gonna destroy you side of things at times.

Thank God for the sisters who call and encourage us and help us figure out how to keep doing what we need to do.

Are you lookin’ around your house wondering how in the world you’re going to do it all?  The bills, the laundry, the errands, the kids, the meals…  You can do it!  Just get up and get started.  Maybe a timer and toggling would work for you today?