By Leo Babauta

There’s a constant desire that most people have to not be behind on everything, and to get on top of it all.

That means clearing out all your tasks, emails, messages, browser tabs, clutter, chores, errands, reading lists, movie and TV watch lists, podcast and audiobook watch lists, obligations to others, commitments, and more.

Whew! Does this sound familiar? I would say most people I know are playing the game of trying to catch up, feeling behind, never feeling like they’re winning at this game.

For me, I can get on top of most things on some days — maybe 10% of the time. The rest of the days, I’m at least a little behind, and sometimes a lot (if I have a lot going on in my personal life, or some travel).

The question is: why are we playing this game of trying to be on top of everything? It’s futile, and not a lot of fun. Most of us are playing this game, and very few of us actually like it.

So what are the alternatives? Let me lay out a few possibilities:

• Play the game of focusing on what’s important, one thing at a time, and letting that be enough
• Having fun, creating, expressing yourself each day
• Giving yourself slow focus rituals, to slow down and focus on the important things, and to sometimes slow down and do the little things
• Doing it with others — set up sessions where you work with others on projects or tasks, or do coworking sessions where you each focus on separate things on the same video call
• Have buckets of things to choose from — a bucket of work tasks, another for financial tasks, etc. — and then let yourself choose from the heart. With no expectation that the buckets ever be empty.
• Have fun pushing important things forward each day — you don’t have to be on top of everything, but you can have satisfaction seeing progress on the things you care about most

If none of these appeal to you, you might come up with your own possibilities! But staying on top of everything is not a game worth playing, in my experience.