You’re ready for the day.
You’ve filled out your card. You’ve got all of your items on it. The top ones serve your goals, the rest are things that you’ll feel great when you get them done today.
You’re confident you can get all your points today. You’re about to get going. And then…you get a phone call. Or you get an email. Or your doorbell rings. And something gets dropped in your lap that seems compelling, and seems like you ought to drop everything and do it today. But it’s not on your card.
I call things like this “drop-ins”. They’re things that aren’t on your card for today, because they either weren’t important enough to make the cut, or they weren’t even on your radar.
When this happens–and it will–you need to develop a way of handling it, so you avoid regularly missing out on doing the things on your card. Really, it’s a series of questions to ask yourself about the drop-in item itself, before you do anything with it.
Not long ago, I drew myself a little flowchart for drop-ins, which you can see below:
Ask yourself if this new thing is really more important than anything on your card today? If it seems that way, ask why it wasn’t already on your radar. Is it something that you could have (should have?) anticipated before filling out your card today? Is it something that changed dramatically over the past day or so?
These questions are not to confuse you. They’re simply to help you get an understanding of those drop-in items that threaten to overturn the commitments you’ve made to yourself each day.
If drop-ins happen enough, use them as an opportunity to change how your work on your card. You probably need to spend more time thinking about what kinds of drop-ins could happen today, and give them the space they need on the card–either by putting fewer items on there today, or by putting an item on there that could nip an anticipated drop-in in the bud.
Remember: this system is all about learning from each day. Your score is telling you something. And if your reason for getting low scores is because of drop-in items, don’t let that learning opportunity pass you by. See what you can learn about your life and your work that you can change on tomorrow’s card.
