One of the oddest things we say regularly is that we’re going catch up, or that we’re playing catch-up. The idea is that we somehow got behind. So the next natural thing to do is to catch up – to get back where we should be.
The reality is: You cannot catch up. The primary reason for this is that there’s nothing to catch up to. Here’s what I mean. Imagine you’re in a race and you fall behind. You don’t want to catch up with the front runner: you want to surpass them! If your goal is to catch up, then all you really want is a tie. Catching up is not a meaningful goal. Run to win.
So much for what you’re thinking. What is the front-runner thinking? Do they want you to catch up? No. So, they’re not going to let you catch up. They keep moving as fast as possible. In fact, they can’t even “coast” to get by. They need to work hard – to keep you from surpassing them.
When some people say, “catch up,” they really mean that they want to get back to where they were. That’s not catching up. In fact, it’s going backward! I hope most of us learned this lesson after the recent pandemic. We got behind in this or that. And we longed to get back to normal. But you can never go back. It’s the same with catching up: When you get to the mythical land of Caught Up, you find that the world has changed.
A great example of this is people who work for years to get caught up on all their work. And when they’re finally caught up and have time for family, their kids are a few years old. Their spouse has new hobbies. And they’ve really just caught up with a world that isn’t what they were expecting.
The biggest danger in playing catch-up is that people often delay something important while they’re playing catch-up. They might put off exercising until the work is all caught up. Or they might put off applying for a new job until the bills are caught up. You might have other examples in your life.
In my book, Relax Focus Succeed, I talk about the “past behind you,” and how certain forces push you forward. In reality, everything pushes you forward. The forces that try to hold you back are destined to fail for one important reason: They cannot succeed. There is no going back. You can only go forward. No matter how caught up you are, the only next thing you can do is step forward into the future.
I think there is value in feeling caught up. By that, I think we really mean that we’re happy with the flow of things. The work flow. The family flow. The flow from calendars we don’t control (holidays, deadlines, school, etc.). In other words, we’re content with the pace of activities, and we don’t feel a need to get ahead of the flow.
I always think about laundry when I think about the never-ending activities in life. No matter what you do, the laundry is never caught up. As soon as you catch up, a stray sock magically appears. Or someone takes a shower. Someone gets ready for work. Someone washes their face with a washcloth. Unless you’re standing naked in front of your washing machine, the laundry is never caught up.
Bottom line: Getting caught up is not a legitimate goal. More often than not, it has you looking backward as you try to move forward. A more realistic goal is to find a balance that works, in which work and play and life move at a sustainable pace for you.
Finally, here’s a note from the world of service delivery: Backlog (undone work) is a good thing. Many people think of backlog as a negative thing. But backlog is what keeps you in business tomorrow and the day after. You get to go to work and feed your family because there’s more work to be done! You never want to catch up and eliminate backlog. If you do that, you have to close the doors because you’re out of business.
Stop playing catch up. Start working on a sustainable pace that allows you to find balance in your life and work!
🙂
