3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys for Keeping it Together When it's Falling Apart

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

I just sent an email to two colleagues in which I closed with the following sentence:

"I hope your semester is winding down nicely rather than having to be wrangled into submission. Can you tell which mine is?"

Yep. That about sums it up.

I'm happy to say that, from an I need to see it perspective, things are looking pretty good. The piles are minimal and the systems are (mostly) humming along, which is all that I can hope for at this time of year. Here are a few strategies I subscribe to at this busy time of the year -- and others like it.

Keep it simple. Now is not the time to try fancy new plans. If it's not broken, don't change it. If it can wait, let it. If it can't wait, use a tried and true strategy. Trying to do it all is overrated.

Keep it consistent. The same things go in the same places -- time wise and stuff wise. Predictability might be boring under some circumstances, but it can be a lifesaver when life is overwhelming. And for many of us, there's even something comforting about a routine.

Try to avoid making a contribution -- to the pile-up, that is. Strategies like Give it Five! and Don't put it down, put it Away! can keep things from getting worse. While it seems that putting one more thing on the pile won't make that much difference, that one more thing you set down now becomes one more thing you have to sort later. Put it where it belongs, or start a homeless bin for all the loose ends without a location to call their own. That way, you need to look in only one place to find that thing you put in a safe place and, when things slow down, you can pick up the bin and put things away.

Finally, above all, remember the one thing I probably say more than any other: it's a process.

Oh, and: this, too, shall pass.