There is more on your list than one person can finish.
By ten on Friday morning, Hannah’s legal pad had forty-seven lines on it. She dispatched trucks for a freight company in Columbus, Ohio, and the end of the month had arrived the way it always did, all at once. A driver was stuck outside Indianapolis. A pallet had gone to the wrong dock. A customer in Dayton wanted to know where her shipment was, in capital letters.
Across the top of the pad Hannah had written URGENT. Then, because it seemed fair, she had written it next to every line. The word had stopped meaning anything, like a smoke alarm that goes off whenever someone makes toast.
She was good at this job. That was part of the trouble. She felt like a person carrying forty-seven plates, and she was still being handed more.
At eleven she stopped typing and stared at the wall clock. Tyler, the intern, rolled his chair over and read the pad over her shoulder.
“Quick question,” he said. “Which one’s first?”
“They’re all first.”
“Okay. But you can only call one person at a time.”
Hannah opened her mouth to say that wasn’t the point. Then she closed it, because it was the point. She owned two hands and one phone.
She picked the driver outside Indianapolis. The call took four minutes. His name was Curtis, he had a flat tire and a sense of humor about it, and there was a tire shop twelve minutes away. Hannah drew a line through the first item. It made a small, satisfying sound, the sound a pen makes when it means it.
The pallet took six minutes. The customer in Dayton took nine and ended with a thank-you, written in lowercase.
By five, the pad had nineteen lines left and the building was still standing. Two of the lines had never been real jobs at all. They were reminders to feel bad about other lines. Hannah crossed those out too, with extra pressure, and went home.
What to notice
The list was never one big job. It was forty-seven small ones, and the weight came from carrying all of them at the same moment. The work itself only ever arrives one phone call at a time.
A question to think about: What are you carrying all at once that you will only ever have to do one piece at a time?
Below are various topics that people often struggle with. Pick a topic and read a story that will give you some insights on the issue you're working on. These stories are for reflection, not a substitute for professional help.