The “Quiver of Arrows” Work Hack

• Are you always having several projects on the go at a time?
• Are you working in a role that requires constant context switching?
• Do you work in a role that has a multitude of remits, that are often unrelated to one another?

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Does any (or all) of the above sound familiar?

Do you get decision paralysis, overwhelm, or procrastination?

I tick all the above, and no strategy or mental image has helped so far. Until a conversation with a colleague clicked something into place.

One visualization that was to help was imagining your task as an arrow. Focus on one target and work on this one target only.

However,

The problem is the other tasks don’t cease to exist. I cannot just focus on the one arrow, because I am worrying about all the things that need doing. With my brain busy fretting, focus is near impossible.

I needed to hack my brain once more.

Enter: a quiver and permission giving.

Imagine a hunter: they would not carry a bow with one arrow. They always carry a quiver with arrows. That was my eureka moment.

Now we extend the mental image. A hunter can only shoot one arrow at a time. That doesn’t mean they drop the other arrows. Yet, using only one arrow at a time is a matter of necessity for a perfect shot.

The silly simple mental image has two functions. It provided my brain with the permission to only focus on one arrow (task) at a time, like the hunter.

And it took some cognitive load off, knowing the other arrows (tasks) are safely in their quiver.

So the only choice left to make then, in any moment, at any time is: which arrow’s time is it to be released right now?

I have only tried it for a week, and so far it seems to work.

I can consciously and confidently—because I now have permission—put arrows (aka fretting thoughts about various tasks) back into the quiver. Because I made the hunter’s decision that right now, the right arrow is the one I have in my hand.