One Thing, Everyday

By Margaret O’Malley

Image via Unsplash

Every semester I dread my list of tasks becoming longer and longer. The to-do lists become never-ending, and after weeks of balancing work, class and social life, it just becomes too much. My anxiety takes over, debilitating me. The number of missing assignments gets larger by the day it seems.  

I blamed undiagnosed disorders for my falling behind. I was overwhelmed. I was feeling desperate to get my life together. I began to scheme how I could possibly clean up the mess I created. Where do I start? Well, it’s as simple as they tell you. You have to start somewhere.   

Write down everything you have been meaning to do for the last month. Pick the easiest one and do it right now. Tomorrow you will do another. Maybe the next day you will take a break, but then you have to get back to the routine. Every day you can feel just a little lighter.

Confessedly I cannot take credit for this method. I owe it to my professor and advisor, Sara Linde-Patel. One of the many times she was attempting to help me dig myself out of an academic pit. In the middle of one of her classic impassioned pep talks, she told me, almost begged me to get one thing done that day. She told me if all I could get done was that one thing then I should give myself a pat on the back. It will get easier, just keep chiseling away at that list.

It’s not a foolproof plan. You have to commit to it, but trust me this is the least amount of commitment it will ever take from you to change your life. Take 30 minutes in the morning when you wake up or right before you put your head back on the pillow tonight. So as I sit here finishing this paragraph, I have to tell you to get it done. That one thing that has been sitting on your to-do list for weeks or even months, do it today. Even if it is the only thing you did today, it is no longer tomorrow’s problem.