Ever have one of those days?

Ever have one of those days . . . the one you planned to go a certain way – the one where you’re going to get so much done, but your day seemed to have a mind of its own and ended up in the complete opposite direction?

You were ready to tackle a few projects . . . but as it would happen, you find yourself down the rabbit hole of responding to urgent and seemingly important, at least at the time, tasks.  It’s more like a game of whack-a-mole, where you bop one issue to find another one to pop-up in its place.  The next thing you know, the end of the day has arrived and you haven’t even started on your project list!

We all have days like this and that’s okay.  I wish I had a great solution for it. 

A few things to do when you’re having a rough day

One of the best things we can do at that point is accept it and do our best to keep calm and remain committed to what we can do or at least try to.  Take a deep breath, maybe two, close your eyes for a few moments, then gently ask yourself, “What’s one small step I can take toward this project?”

Instead of completing a huge project, we may be able to take at least one teeny tiny step toward making progress on it.  For example, if your project requires major thinking and planning, make an appointment with yourself for 30 minutes on your calendar to begin an outline for the project.  When that time comes, guard that time, set aside all distractions, set a timer and give it your full focus.

Days like these seem to come about more times than I’d like.  It certainly is a great reminder that gives us perspective regarding the days that do go our way.   How much more will we be able to savor the feeling of accomplishment, productivity and being in the flow when we have one of those good days?  Without the contrasting days that don’t go so well, we won’t know what we’re missing.

Confession: I’m having one of those days today, where what I planned seems more like a joke.  I spent at least 90 minutes the day before planning out my week; yet day 1 goes completely to pot!

Helpful reframes when you’re having a bad day

Here are a few reframes that are helping me through it:

  • Recognizing early on that this is an uphill battle – there are times when those urgent fires require immediate attention and have to be put out first.
  • Accepting the situation as it is and deciding to go with the flow.  It’s not as easy as it sounds, but what good will come out of fighting it?  Better to let go of the stress and use your energy to focus on what you can control; your attitude, your reaction, what you do next!
  • Taking deep breaths or even walking away from the scene, preferably outdoors or at least in another room allows yourself the space to shift out of reactive mode into more of a proactive mode of “What can I do or how can I help?”
  • The good news is that it forces you to focus on your priorities, even if your day is nearly over. You get to choose which one you want to work on.

 

The last time this happened, which was probably 3 -4 weeks ago, I had only about 15 minutes left, after responding to emails requiring my attention, extinguishing one fire of the day and before I had to leave to drop my daughter off at volleyball practice.

At this point there were two choices:

  1. I could give up, be frustrated and chalk it up to just one of those days and hope that the next day would be better OR
  2. I could use those 15 minutes to the best of my ability

I went with option 2 and laser focused on one of my priorities (I don’t even remember what it was), but I do remember feeling a small win.  After I returned from dropping 

off my daughter, I spent another hour in catch-up mode and was probably more productive than I had been on previous days of distraction.

What are some strategies or reframes you’ve used when you have a day that doesn’t go your way?

Are there a few things you could have in place that may mitigate a day like this?