HOW TO AVOID OVERUNNING YOUR “PROGRAMS”

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Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has made me watch international news channels such as Al Jazeera, CNN, etc in past 3 weeks than I have for most of my life. In this same period, because of the state burial, I watched our national broadcaster’s news and made an interesting observation. 

This bordered on the level of adherence to the programming by international news channels as opposed to our local stations.

Currently, global news has been focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine with 90% and sometimes even 100% content for every news broadcast. The rest of the news has been left to either appear as subtitles (delegated at the bottom of the screen) or completed removed from the programming. They have focused on the “important” content as opposed to trying to share all the news items they may have. As a result, they are mostly on schedule with no cancelling or delay of programs.

Coming to our local broadcaster, even if the main item was the state burial, watching the news felt as though everything had to be shown so long as it reached the newsroom. On a day of having an exceptional event (state burial), most of the reporting focused expectedly on the function which covered more than 60% of main news time. However, the news continued with more content than the allocated time and it was no surprising that some programs after the news had to be cancelled or rescheduled.

In my early days of work, I noticed that I was running my daily schedules (programming) like our local broadcaster. I would write down every possible activity (news item) which I could think of doing for that day on my to do list (schedule). My diary would be filled with to do list which looked more like history lesson notes.

My aim was to action all the items on my list (show all the news). Productivity was all about number of activities I crossed out at end of the day. As a result, I ended up knocking off late from work and on most occasions working even on weekends. I overrun my programming leading to stress and burnouts on regular occasions.

What I have learnt now is to streamline what is critical by working on vital ("newsworthy") activities and eliminate or delegate the rest. In as much as we would like to do more, we only have a limited time and energy which is better channelled towards your prime activities.

By working on (showing) a few important tasks (news items) at work each day, you will reduce unnecessary burnouts (overrunning) in your life (programs) and make time for other important things in your social and spiritual spheres of life.


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