Toward the very end of the day, I often find myself clutching at quick-fix jobs to do before all my hours have been exceeded.
Generally speaking, I do this because I feel as though I haven’t completed everything that I had planned to do on that day. More often than not, this is due to my day having been derailed because of something unexpected added to my agenda.
No matter how well I plan ahead and anticipate issues, due to the nature of running an agency, with every day being so varied, best-laid plans do not always come to fruition.
Today has been one of those days for me; however, as with many negative situations, there is often a positive outcome. As Benjamin Franklin put it, “out of adversity comes opportunity,” or as I often do when I mix up my sayings, I say “out of adversity comes diversity,” which I somewhat prefer.
How can this be resolved?
I am often found speaking with our management team about the negative impact of dopamine fixes and the positive outcomes of establishing serotonin-fueled delayed gratification in the work we do. Occasionally I forget to realign my thoughts, and I find myself chasing the fix, whether this is that additional email or campaign adjustment. With any of these quick fixes, I find that no matter how many I do, they are never enough. This is because they don’t fill the void, and they never will. Instead, knowing that this is the case, the solution is to spend the time planning ahead as a preventative measure to ensure that satisfaction can be sought through serotonin as a result of longer-term goals being achieved.
Remember to reflect on the achievements, and if you struggle to see the positive progress, lower your expectations, extend the time frame from which you are making the comparison, and give yourself a break (or at least this is the advice that is given to me in such situations).