On paper, you’re moving right along.
Finish the client call.
Answer the email.
Pick up the groceries.
Start dinner.
Totally normal Tuesday.
Except now you’re making tacos and still thinking about something the client said at 10am.
Wondering whether you should’ve answered differently.
Trying to remember whether you sent that follow-up.
And then you remember something else you need to do tomorrow.
And suddenly you’re standing there with a spatula in your hand thinking about a client call that ended six hours ago.
Which is when I start getting suspicious of the way we’re counting work.
Because technically?
The call is done.
But your brain apparently did not receive that memo.
And that’s a weird little distinction that doesn’t show up anywhere on your to-do list.
Curators are QUITE familiar with this – the client call ended 6 hours ago, but apparently nobody told their brain….
That’s actually one of the five results on a short quiz I created. If you don’t know your archetype yet, you can find it at yourunbusylife.com/quiz.
Your list says:
✔ Client call complete.
It does not say:
✔ Spent 20 minutes replaying one answer afterward.
✔ Wondered whether the client was actually happy with what I said.
✔ Remembered a follow-up while brushing my teeth.
✔ Mentally reopened the conversation at 4:30 because apparently Past Me left a tab open. 😂
So you can check off 14 things by 3pm… and still feel like nothing is really finished.
Because you’re not just doing the thing.
You’re carrying little pieces of the thing around afterward.
And eventually that starts to make the whole day feel strangely crowded.
Not because you had 14 enormous tasks.
Because nothing ever quite stayed where you left it.
That’s actually one of the five results on a short quiz I created. If you don’t know your archetype yet, you can find it at yourunbusylife.com/quiz.
But here’s what I find interesting:
We tend to solve this by trying to get faster.
Finish the call faster.
Answer the email faster.
Get through the list faster.
Maybe if we can just become really, really efficient, we’ll finally have enough room to breathe.
Except…. What if the problem isn’t how long the task takes?
What if part of the problem is that the task keeps following you around after it’s over?
Because that’s a completely different problem.
And I don’t think the answer is another productivity hack.
I’d much rather get you to the point where you close your laptop and think: “Cool. Tomorrow I start here.”
And actually mean it.
Where the client call gets to be a client call.
Not a client call + six hours of post-production in your head. 😂
Because one day, checking something off might actually mean your brain agrees it’s over, too.
Which would make that little checkmark considerably more useful.
