TL/DR:
- Your tasks fall into two categories: glass balls that shatter with real consequences if dropped, and rubber balls that bounce back without harm.
- You’ll always have too much to do, which means dropping some balls is inevitable, so knowing which ones bounce gives you more agency over your workload.
- Understanding which balls are glass vs. rubber helps you prioritize with confidence and make peace with the tradeoffs you’ll always have to make with your time.
The Whole Shebang:
Last week, I was trying to put eggs in the fridge and this one slipped right out of my hands and splashed at my feet.
This wasn’t even an “you’ve got to break a few eggs if you want to make a cake” situation.
Just an egg broken, and a big mess, because I was trying to hold too many eggs in my hands at once.
Why, you might be wondering, wasn’t I simply taking the cardboard standard egg carton and putting it in the fridge?
Well, let me just say that I live in a house with 2 teenage boys (and I’m a middle-aged person trying to eat enough protein on the daily so that my muscles don’t deteriorate and I don’t find myself fallen in a “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” (IYKYK) situation in a few decades).
So, we buy eggs by the 5 dozen. And this requires a little finagling to get them into the fridge.
But back to our story.
As I swore under my breath, and reached for a paper towel to clean up my (unnecessary) mess, what popped into my head was the metaphor of rubber balls and glass balls.
You can think of your tasks as balls.
Some of them rubber, which bounce when dropped, and some of them glass, which shatter when dropped, just like this egg.
And, it’s important to know the difference, because you will always have too much to do.
Too many balls in the air, so to speak. (Or eggs in your hands?)
You, me and everyone else on the planet?
We could all work 18 hours a day, every day, for the rest of our lives, and there would still be more to do.
And because you have too much to do, and you’re likely a bit overly optimistic about what you can do in any given hour, day, or week, you’re bound to drop some balls.
Knowing which balls can be dropped (and bounce right back to you) without major consequence allows you to be a better, more informed, more confident juggler.
Now, could you make the case that you should just juggle fewer balls?
Yes, and I do! Often!
But, I also know that ambitious humans, like me and you, sometimes find that difficult.
Our task eyes are bigger than our task stomachs!
We want to believe we have more than 2 hands to help with the juggling.
So as a backstop, knowing what will bounce, and knowing what will shatter, helps you hedge against that optimism on your way to becoming a task realist.
So, what does this mean practically, for you?
It means you have more agency than you think over your workload.
Because not all balls, when dropped, carry the same consequence. The rubber ones bounce back.
So here’s what you can do.
Take a look at your task-list, and ask yourself, which of these tasks are glass?
Which will shatter if I don’t do them, or don’t do them by a certain date?
And which of these tasks are rubber?
Which will bounce if dropped, right back into your hands, for you to do another day, without consequence?
Knowing the difference can help you feel more confident in your prioritization, your decisions and the tradeoffs you must inevitably make with your time.
When I dropped that egg, I’d been holding far too many eggs in my hands.
But, if I’d been holding, say, a handful of string cheeses and dropped one, well, no harm no foul.
Need some examples? You got it!
Glass balls (handle with care as breaking has real consequences):
- Your kiddo’s school performance, recital, or game you promised you’d attend
- Your own health appointments, especially the ones that took months to book
- (Side Story: I’m alive today because I got my first mammogram, even though I had no discernable lump nor any family history of breast cancer.)
- A big client deliverable tied to a contract or invoice
- Taxes
- Paying bills that affect your credit or housing
Rubber balls (drop them and they bounce back):
- Inbox zero-ish
- Folding the laundry today vs. tomorrow
- Returning a text within the hour
- That book you said you’d read for book club
- (Side story: my mom has been in the same book club for over 40 years, and for a few years when she was in grad school, she didn’t read any of the books (as she was prioritizing her classes) and made it a game to BS her way through the convo until someone noticed she hadn’t read it. Mostly, no one noticed. And when they did, they thought it was funny.)
- Cleaning out your closet, garage, pantry or junk drawer
And, beware, because, sometimes a ball vitrifies, turning from rubber to glass:
- A work project where the deadline is approaching, and the thing you’ve been procrastinating for weeks is now coming due.
- Date night (or 1:1s with your employees!): rubber if you cancel once or twice, but it becomes glass if you keep canceling.
- Exercise or sleep: rubber if you skip a workout, or have a single late night, but glass when it becomes a pattern.