Recently, I was listening to an emergency medicine podcast when one of the hosts threw out a term I had never heard before🎧.
Si-ssa-phy-sian.
I was immediately confused 😵. I knew the topic of the podcast, but was this a new medical term or condition I hadn't heard of? 🦠
I later realized what I actually heard was Sisphyean, and when I looked into it further it forever changed the way I view productivity.
But first, a quick history lesson 📜!
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the King of Ephyra and a prominent figure in Homer's Iliad 👑. Sisyphus is known for many clever acts including cheating death and tricking Hades, the god of death💀. When he angered the king of gods Zeus however, a terrible punishment was handed down 🤬.
Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a mountain for eternity 🪨. If that's not bad enough, every time Sisyphus almost reached the top of the mountain ⛰️, the boulder would roll back down and Sisyphus would have to start all over 😵💫.
From this tale, we get the term Sisphyean task. A Sisphyean task is a task that seems never-ending or impossible to complete. It could be something large like trying to solve world hunger 🌏, or something much smaller like trying to keep or home clean 🏠.
Not only is a Sisphyean task incredibly frustrating, but we often never get the satisfaction of completion🏆.
So what do we do? 🤔
When it comes to managing a Sisphyean task, there are two options:
#1 Simplify the task. A Sisphyean task, at first glance, can seem daunting and overwhelming 😰. But what if we broke it down? Instead of trying to clean our entire home, why not start with one room, or even our desk 🖥️? Instead of trying to complete a whole PowerPoint presentation in one sitting, how about creating an outline or a template 📝? By simplifying a Sisphyean task, the mountain gets smaller and the boulder gets lighter .
#2 Abandon the task. Not every task can (or deserves to) be completed. If a task is really draining our time/resources or isn't moving us forward 😪, we owe it to ourselves to be honest and abandon it 🚫. Rather than viewing it as a failure, we should instead focus on all the time and opportunities we regain by leaving an unnecessary task behind 😌.
So here's the challenge: Identify a Sisyphean task in your own life. We all have them! Whether we want to admit it or not, there's something out there that's taking up too much time, mental space, or is just plain no good for us 😐.
Once you identify your own Sispyhean task, decide which path you need to go down to manage it and see what happens 🛣️. You may be surprised at how much simpler the task becomes, or how much better you feel if it disappears entirely 🪄!
⚡️ Enhance Your Productivity: Check out more of my productivity articles and learn how to get things done.
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