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We all have loads and loads of things to do and take care of. The more we do, the more piles up. The list of things to be done never seems to come to an end. Well, that’s life. When there is nothing more to be done, it would probably indicate that the end is near. So in a way it is part and parcel of life, and having things to do is one of the things that keep us moving.

However, it is not so important that there are things to be done as it is that the things to be done are those that you want to. Many people live the day without having a definite plan of action of their own. For a moment, try getting into this pair of shoes yourself. While you are going through the day, you get a lot of requests that fill up your list, and you start working on them. What happens then is that you land up working on things that you have been asked to do, instead of doing the things that you would have wanted to do. And while you are tackling the work items that have been requested/order from you, if you still fail to force yourself and make some time for the things that you yourself wanted to do, soon you will run out of time to do anything of what you wanted to. Then you will be doing only the things that were forced upon you. And since all are tasks that came from out of yourself, soon you would tend to lose interest in those tasks. And as you lose interest, the things that need to be done keep increasing steadily, because you are not able to get out through the outbox at the same or faster rate than the rate at which things come into your inbox. Figure 1 below is what the situation would look like. A lot comes in, little goes out, and with each additional task that gets added to the list of pending tasks, there is more burden to carry around, thereby causing stress and depression. Moreover, all that comes in is from others and the little that gets out is for others. None of the things that you do come from yourself and none of the things you do produce anything for yourself. As a result, you soon lose purpose in life.

Figure 1

Then there is the opposite case, depicted in figure 2 below. Workload comes in and goes out, but the burden is less because things get done fast because, as most of them come from within, they are less stressful and get done with more enthusiasm. However, in this case, all that is being done comes from within and all that is done is for yourself. In this case your actions become selfish and you become a closed island.

Figure 2

Certainly, figures 1 and 2 are extreme cases, and it is most likely that life will be a hybrid of the two depictions, as portrayed in figure 3.

Figure 3

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, workload is an essential part of life. The secret is to control the inflow of workload. What you should do, is try and maximize the inflow of workload from yourself and minimize the inflow of workload coming from others. It is also important that what gets achieved should be for the benefit of you as well as others. In this case of figure 3, since most things come from within and are thereby less stressful and less mind boggling, they get done faster and the burden is reduced. Also, as most of what you yourself wanted to do is being done, there is self satisfaction too! And as the work items flowing in from within yourself produce results benefiting you as well as everyone around you, a further sense of accomplishment comes over you, and you move rapidly towards finding fulfillment in life.