Finding Your Pace: Why You'll Never Get It All Done (And That's Okay)
- linnearader
- Oct 20
- 8 min read
Let me tell you something that might feel like bad news at first: you will never get it all done.
Never.
Your to-do list will always be longer than your available time. There will always be another project, another problem, another opportunity, another crisis. The inbox will never stay at zero. The goals will keep shifting. The demands will keep coming.
This is part of my "Finding Your..." series. We've covered finding your why, your community, your boundaries, and your voice. Today we're tackling something that took me way too long to accept: finding your sustainable pace.
The To-Do List That Never Ends
"There are things you want to do and things you have to do. You get done what's necessary and fill in with wish list items as you can."
As a leader, the to-do list is long and grows constantly. When you're working with your teams, you think of different ways things could be done better. You see opportunities for additional projects that could make everything more efficient. You notice problems that need solving, gaps that need filling, improvements that would make real differences.
They're all amazing ideas. They're all worth doing. They're all competing for the same limited resource: time.
Here's what I wish someone had told me twenty years ago: you don't get bonus points for exhausting yourself. You don't become a better leader by working until you burn out. And you definitely don't serve your organization well when you're running on fumes.
To be truly effective, you have to step back sometimes and determine what's most important and how much you can actually accomplish. There's always a to-do list and a wish list. There are things you want to do and things you have to do. You get done what's necessary and fill in with wish list items as you can.
That's not giving up. That's being strategic.
The Marathon vs. Sprint Reality
Leadership isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. Actually, it's more like an ultra-marathon with no finish line in sight. If you run it like a sprint, you'll collapse before you've made it through year one.
I learned this lesson the hard way through my own health journey. At my heaviest, I was hiking in Hocking Hills, Ohio, and it was all I could do to make it around the trail. I didn't quit, but I knew things had to change. Over the next year, I lost 60+ pounds. I walked a lot. I worked hard. I was consistent.
The key word there? Consistent. Not perfect. Not all-out every single day. Consistent.
I didn't try to lose 60 pounds in a month. I didn't work out for eight hours a day. I found a pace I could maintain over time, and I stuck with it. Some days were great. Some days I just showed up and did the minimum. But I kept going.
Leadership works the same way. You need a pace you can sustain not just for this week or this month, but for years. Decades, even.
The Productivity Trap
"The most effective leaders I know aren't the ones who work the most hours. They're the ones who work smart, prioritize ruthlessly, and protect their capacity to show up consistently."
Our culture glorifies busyness. We wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. We compete over who got less sleep, who worked more hours, who has the longest to-do list.
It's ridiculous. And it's destructive.
Being busy doesn't equal being effective. Working long hours doesn't automatically mean you're accomplishing important things. Sometimes the person who works 50 hours a week gets less meaningful work done than the person who works 40 focused, strategic hours.
I've watched leaders run themselves ragged trying to do everything, be everything, fix everything. And you know what happens? They make poor decisions because they're exhausted. They miss important details because their brains are fried. They create crisis situations because they're too scattered to plan effectively. Their teams suffer because a burned-out leader can't support or develop anyone.
The most effective leaders I know aren't the ones who work the most hours. They're the ones who work smart, prioritize ruthlessly, and protect their capacity to show up consistently.
Learning to Prioritize Ruthlessly
Here's a skill nobody teaches but everyone needs: ruthless prioritization.
Not everything is urgent. Not everything is important. Not everything deserves your time right now, or ever.
I've started asking myself three questions about every potential project, meeting, or commitment:
Does this move us toward our most important goals? Not all goals, our most important ones. If it doesn't directly contribute to what matters most, it goes to the bottom of the list or gets cut entirely.
Am I the only one who can do this? If someone else can handle it 80% as well as I could, I delegate it. My time is better spent on the things only I can do.
What am I saying no to by saying yes to this? Every yes is a no to something else. If I commit to this project, what am I not going to have time for? Is that trade-off worth it?
These questions help me separate the truly important from the merely urgent, the legitimately necessary from the just nice-to-have.
The Permission to Be Strategic
Here's something I had to learn: it's okay to not do everything. It's okay to let some opportunities pass. It's okay to say, "That's a great idea, but not right now."
This doesn't mean you're lazy or uncommitted. It means you're strategic about where you invest your finite energy.
Some projects can wait. Some problems will solve themselves if you give them time. Some opportunities aren't actually opportunities, they're distractions disguised as productivity.
Give yourself permission to be strategic. To focus on what matters most. To let the less important stuff wait or fall away entirely.
The Seasons of Leadership
Your pace doesn't have to be constant. There are seasons when you need to push harder, major projects, crisis situations, critical transitions. Those intense periods are fine as long as they're temporary.
The problem comes when you try to maintain crisis-level intensity indefinitely. That's when burnout happens. That's when your health suffers. That's when relationships deteriorate and you lose sight of why you're doing this work in the first place.
Recognize the seasons. Push hard when it matters. Pull back and recover when you can. Find a sustainable average pace that you can maintain through the long haul.
What Sustainable Actually Looks Like
"The key is finding what works for you, what lets you show up consistently as an effective leader without burning out."
Sustainable doesn't mean easy. It doesn't mean coasting or doing the minimum. It means finding a pace that lets you do excellent work without destroying yourself in the process.
For me, sustainable means protecting my sleep. It means taking actual breaks during the day. It means taking time with my kiddo to make sure he’s successful too. It means saying no to commitments that don't align with my priorities. It means delegating work that others can handle so I can focus on what needs my specific expertise.
Your sustainable pace might look different. The key is finding what works for you, what lets you show up consistently as an effective leader without burning out.
The Team Impact
Your pace affects your team's pace. If you're working until 8 PM every night, you're sending a message about expectations even if you never say a word. If you're constantly stressed and frazzled, your team picks up that energy. If you never take time off, you're teaching them that balance isn't valued.
Finding your sustainable pace isn't just about you, it's about modeling healthy leadership for your team. It's about creating a culture where excellent work and reasonable boundaries coexist. It's about showing people that you can be committed to great outcomes without sacrificing your wellbeing.
The Long Game
I'm in this field for the long haul. I've been doing this work for over 20 years, and I plan to keep doing it. But I can only sustain that if I maintain a pace that doesn't deplete me.
The same is true for you. If you want to keep leading, if you want to keep making an impact and developing your teams and serving your community, you need to find a pace you can maintain not just for this year, but for your entire career.
That means accepting that you won't get everything done. That some projects will take longer than you'd like. That some opportunities will pass you by. That you'll have to make hard choices about where to invest your limited time and energy.
It also means accepting that this is okay. That doing fewer things well is better than doing many things poorly. That consistent, sustainable effort over time beats intense bursts followed by burnout.
The Daily Practice
"The goal isn't perfection. It's sustainability. It's still being here, healthy, engaged, effective years from now."
Finding your pace is a daily practice. Every day, you face choices about how fast to run, how much to take on, where to invest your energy.
Ask yourself: Is this pace sustainable? Can I maintain this for months? Years? Am I running so hard that I'm missing what matters? Am I protecting the capacity I need to show up well tomorrow and next week and next year?
Some days you'll need to sprint. Some days you'll need to slow down. Some days you'll get a lot done. Some days you'll do the minimum and that's enough.
The goal isn't perfection. It's sustainability. It's still being here, healthy, engaged, effective years from now.
Making Peace with Good Enough
This might be the hardest part: sometimes good enough really is good enough.
Not everything needs to be perfect. Sometimes you need to complete something adequately so you can move on to the next thing that actually needs your best work.
Perfectionism is a pace-killer. It makes you spend three hours on something that needed thirty minutes. It keeps you from delegating because "no one will do it as well as I would." It prevents you from moving forward because you're still trying to get one thing absolutely perfect.
Learn to identify what truly needs excellence and what just needs completion. Give your best to what matters most. Give good enough to everything else.
You're Running Your Race
Other leaders are going to operate at different paces. Some will seem to accomplish more in a day than you do in a week. Some will seem to handle more responsibility with less stress. Some will make it look easy.
Don't compare your pace to theirs. You don't know their full story. You don't know what they're sacrificing to maintain that pace. You don't know how long they'll be able to sustain it.
You're running your own race. Find your sustainable pace. Honor what you need to stay healthy and effective. Make choices that let you keep showing up for the long haul.
The Real Victory
"You can lead effectively without destroying yourself in the process."
Here's what I've learned: the victory isn't in getting everything done. It's in consistently doing what matters most. It's in maintaining your effectiveness over time. It's in building something sustainable rather than burning bright and burning out.
You'll never get it all done. But you can get the right things done. You can make meaningful impact. You can lead effectively without destroying yourself in the process.
Find your pace. Honor it. Protect it. Because this work matters too much for you to burn out before you've made the difference you're capable of making.
What does a sustainable pace look like for you? Where do you struggle most with trying to do too much? Share your thoughts in the comments.
As always, carry social kindness with you everywhere you go. The world needs you and your positive mindset!
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269-621-5282
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