Cat In The Hat Syndrome

You likely know the book and can even picture the drawing.  The cat is riding a unicycle, it’s got a cane, it’s juggling plates, a goldfish in a bowl, all sorts of things are flying in the air.  Thing 1 and 2 are crashing around the cat and the house is an absolute mess.

A lot of times it can feel like this especially when we’re juggling multiple projects.  We already know multi-tasking as a means of achieving success only gives us the perception of productivity and instead of helping actually hurts our efforts.

How do we go from the Cat In The Hat to the spotless house at the end of the book.  We’ll let you in on a little hint, it’s not magic, it’s about self-management and project management.

Here are a couple of tips to help you get back on track to a less chaotic environment when you’re juggling multiple projects.
  1.  Always prioritize and focus on tasks that will help you make progress on the priority.  This is especially difficult when we are in the weeds.
  2. If you’re too much in the weeds, step away for a while to allow your unconscious mind to work through the issue or get an outsider to help you identify the best way to achieve your near term goals and power through the work in front of you.
  3. Capability and capacity are both important.  You’ll always be capable of doing what’s in front of you, but will you have the capacity to do it?  At times we will struggle with certain activities.  Be prepared to pivot and change your focus to something else when you’re struggling.  You’ll find, for example, some activities you can crush in the morning and feel like you’re walking through quicksand if you do them in the afternoon.  

Life isn’t simple and linear.  We will often deal with multiple projects and conflicting priorities.  Learning to manage to these beyond the ineffective multi-task will make a small change today seriously compound over time to amazing results.

For more conversation around project management check out our most recent podcast with HennepX co-founder, Drew DiAlberto.  You can listen in here.


If you’re looking for even more great content around time management head on over to our private, free facebook group the Entrepreneur Mastery Lab where other professionals like Drew and ourselves offer you free, incredible content, daily!  You can join us here!

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