When I worked in the corporate world, invariably I would receive tasks on a short deadline, even when I had a lot of other things on my plate.  They’d explain how critical and urgent my response was–there was just no way they could wait.  So I’d go nuts trying to get everything done, on time, only to have my contribution gather dust on their desk long after I’d turned it in.  Apparently it hadn’t been that critical or urgent after all.

I used to get really frustrated by this, because it happened fairly frequently and it was causing a lot of stress in my life.  I couldn’t figure out why they were willing to overburden me when nine times out of ten, they didn’t need the response or project by the date they said they did.

One reason is that despite all the complaining, I usually met those short deadlines, so the people doing the tasking assumed I was just crying wolf.  Another reason is because they know most people wait until the last minute to do it anyway, and I am no exception, so why not do it now?  If the deadline is too far out, it’s not uncommon for the someone to forget about it all together.

But the big reason for short suspenses is most people are insanely impatient once they figure out what they want.  This was the insight that gave my empathy a boost, because it turns out the very worst offender of impatient tasking of my time is…me.

I’m currently experiencing a lot of changes in my life: leaving the military, selling my beloved house, moving to another state, and looking for new job.  Needless to say, life is hectic.  It feels like one big to-do list, and few of the tasks are real pleasures.

Even outside that kind of change, modern life seems obsessed with project management and getting things done.  Consider blogs such as Stepcase Lifehack and Simple Productivity.  Amazon offers scads of books on everything from getting organized to overcoming procrastination.

So when I got the following “letter turned guest post” from Everyday Bright reader and fellow Brazen Careerist Sadya Siddiqui, I knew I had to share it.  In my opinion, it’s nothing short of brilliant.

I finished Hecht’s The Happiness Myth (a full review to come this week) and am now devouring Switch by Chip & Dan Heath.  They also wrote Made to Stick, a terrific how-to for effective communication.

One of the things I like about the new book is that it reinforces the communication concepts from Made to Stick, and then shows you how to apply them to affect significant change, whether personal or professional.  They use an analogy throughout the book of the brain as an elephant and its rider–borrowed, as best as I can tell, from Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. 

In the analyogy, the brain has a rational, long-term thinking part (the Rider), a huge, emotional, short-term satisfaction part (the Elephant), and both have to work together to navigate a path (life).  When the two are in conflict, the Rider can only win temporarily before being overpowered by the Elephant.