"Drinking from a firehose," "trying to boil the ocean," "biting the bullet," "keeping a lot of plates spinning," "hitting the ground running," "doing more with less."

2019 has been busy. Exceedingly busy. I've been learning a lot.

Here's an incomplete list of things I'm learning right now.

• How to manage an impossible amount of "urgent" deadlines. In other words, how to really prioritize in a more refined way

• How to say "no" the right way to people I truly want to serve

• How to re-engineer my days and nights with more precision to avoid burnout at work and at home.

• How to make better work, faster

• How to preempt project obstacles by communicating with project teams early and often. In other words, how to get projects done ahead of time by working a little harder.

• Ultimately, how to work smarter and not as hard. Like going from a sprinter to a marathon runner. Pacing myself in the short term so I can do much, much more in the longer term.