Have you ever watched a football game and seen on team jump out to an early 31-0 lead in the first half? One team feels great and the other is a mess, but then halftime arrives. An abrupt interruption to the action. A time to reset the mentality of every player and coach on the field. The team with 31 points had all the momentum, but after halftime everyone starts fresh. Suddenly, the momentum is up for grabs. The team with no points scores 7, then 14, then 21, then 28 and before long, the score is 31-28.
These kind of things, can and do happen at work on a regular basis. We get hit in the face with an enormous project and an impossible deadline on top of our other daily roles and demands. The air gets knocked out of our lungs and we're left to figure out how to get everything done on time. How, then, do we build positive momentum? How do we get the pendulum to swing back in our favor?
It's simple. Change your mentality. Instead of allowing yourself to be overwhelmed, start breaking everything down in to actionable steps. Instead of an amorphous cloud of work looming over your head, start making a tangible to-do list that will move you closer to completion, one step at a time. This is why football teams have coaches. Halftime is where coaches use time in the locker room to create and implement an actionable plan to cut the deficit and win the game. You have to do the same.
Take a step back and determine the best course of action to finish all of the work on time. Each time you mark something off the to-do list increases your momentum. What are you going to do today to shift the momentum to your favor?