Making it Stick
Getting bored quickly, becoming distracted and losing interest in the follow up to projects
Procrastination is the new deadly sin. Don’t put off the things you know you should do, the important stuff that seems difficult and you never get around to doing. Procrastination will impact adversely on your career, your relationships and social life and your financial well-being. Procrastinators come in all shapes and sizes, driven by different motivations and fears. Analyse why you procrastinate:
- do you need to get every decision, right, every time: the perfectionist?
- do you, deep down, like the adrenalin rush of burning the midnight oil to meet deadlines at the last minute: the crisis-maker?
- are you uncertain of what you need to do and hope that by putting off the task a solution will somehow present itself: the dreamer?
- are you easily distracted, allowing more interesting activities to redirect your attention: the butterfly?
Take the time to understand why you specifically procrastinate. Pinpointing the reason will help find the solution to manage procrastination. But accept that you need to recognise how the consequences of procrastination are constraining your life goals. Use your power of imagination to think through how life will unfold if you continue to procrastinate. talentdevelop.com
“Swallow the frog.” Do the difficult thing first. Get it done and out of the way before you take on more enjoyable and interesting activities. Don’t start the day with the easy stuff hoping to get into the “swing of things”. Do the tough thing first. You’ll be surprised by good it makes you feel and how much quicker you complete the other tasks of the day.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer scale and scope of the task that lies head. Break your overall task down into smaller activities. And start the task in however small a way. But make a start. Build momentum by making progress, however small. Keep reviewing how each accomplishment is contributing to your longer-term objectives.
Don’t always swing for the fence. In a baseball game, the batter is faced with a choice: play the obvious shot, the easy shot to allow the third base to run home, or go for the tougher shot, swinging as hard as possible to hit the ball over the fence and go for the home run. The batter swings for the fence, strikes out and the team lose the game. Don’t think that life is a series of big shots in which you can have it all immediately. Be prepared to go for the small gains and victories.
Be patient. You may be lucky. But probably not. In life, there are very few big and quick wins. Most of the time there is a set of small gains, none of which may seem significant in themselves, but when moving in the right direction at once will make a big difference over the long run. Know when to wait to allow events unfold and when you need to push with your all might to take advantage of the momentum of your previous efforts. But keep disciplined in “nudging” each of your different plans forward
Master your diversions, the strategies you deploy to avoid doing what needs to be done.Monitor your actions to identify the mental games you play:
- doing something “practical”. You feel you’re making progress but if it isn’t a priority, you’re deluding yourself. Read a newspaper or tidy your desk but don’t pretend you’re doing something useful
- making mental excuses (e.g. “I’ll do it tomorrow”; “I need to check I’ve really understood the objectives”). Will you?
- managing your emotions to make you feel better (“This glass of wine will get me started.”) Are you eliminating the guilt of avoiding the unpleasant and important tasks?
Develop your powers of concentration. A task that can be completed within 10 minutes of concentrated power will take an hour of divided attention. Don’t allow distractions undermine your productivity:
- know why you are doing the task. Even the most boring activity can be energising if it is part of a bigger purpose. Ask how the task is helping you advance your goals. If it isn’t, don’t do it.
- break the task into smaller chunks and allocate short breaks. Concentrate on one task at a time. Don’t let your attention wander.
- create an environment that helps keep you alert and removes any distractions. Take yourself into a work environment without newspapers, TV, etc
- clear your work area of anything that you’re not currently working on
- look to find out what is new and unfamiliar in the material you are working on. Don’t jump to assumptions about the task. It may seem boring at first but with a sense of curiousity, it may trigger fresh ideas. Keep alert to spot new patterns or trends.
“Five Minutes More”. If you find yourself getting restless, wanting to stop a task and wander off to chat to a colleague or pick up a newspaper, then make a commitment to work for another five minutes. Not another five minutes of restless and distracted clock watching activity, but five efforts of productive concentration. Then take a break. “Five minutes more” allows you to manage that momentary annoyance or frustration – “I’m fed up with this” – and will re-establish your momentum.
Work backwards. Visualise your goal, the end-point of what it is you want to attain. Paint a picture in your head of what it will look like. Even better, cut out images from magazines that depict your goal and make a collage of your life purpose. Put it in a prominent place. That is your focus of success. Then imagine what immediately led up to that moment of success. What triggered that success? And then keep going to ask: what one thing led up to that step? Keep going until you track back to the first step you have to take and do it. And follow the sequence through.
Take the path of least resistance. What is the quickest way to accomplish your goals? In an ideal world, if you had a magic wand to wave, what would be the shortest route to get from where you are now to where you want to be? How quickly could you translate your initial ideas and plans into the practical outcomes that will make a positive difference? What in the real world is likely to slow down this process? The chances are that blockages hinge on two or three key activities or individuals. Take action now to anticipate the delays and overcome these constraints.
Be prepared to commit and to follow through on your commitments. Most of the time there is no obvious direction, no definitive course of action that will guarantee the successful attainment of your goals. Instead, typically, there is confusion and uncertainty about the pros and cons of different options. Don’t keep waiting for a clarity that will never materialise. Instead, direct your purpose and energy on the solution you can make work. With sufficient commitment on your part, you will implement it successfully.
The Do it tomorrow default setting. This isn’t the encouragement of procrastination. It is the beginnings of a new work discipline to establish control over your life. Stop responding immediately to every phone call, email or document that lands on your desk. An immediate response gives the illusion of activity. It also disrupts your work rhythm, putting you constantly on the back foot. Instead “do it tomorrow” (unless it is a genuine emergency). This helps you structure your work pattern around clear priorities of importance and urgency.
Get commitments from others. Don’t allow phone calls or meetings to end without a clear conclusion and agreement on next steps. And if others can’t commit immediately, then ask for a time when they will be able to decide. And if they still can’t make that commitment, then forget it. Don’t waste time on those who can’t get things done.
Short-cuts can also become dead-ends. In life, there are short cuts, sensible ways of doing things quicker and with less effort. There are also the short cuts which are the expedient means of doing a low quality job in the hope that no one will notice. Know when you have to take pains to do the right thing for the long-term. Avoid the temptation to opt for the “quick and dirty” solution that will backfire, creating greater problems in future.
Keep a diary. Take time at the end of each day to review progress against your goals. Don’t simply rewrite today’s to-do list for tomorrow. Look at the things you have and haven’t done. And maintain this discipline each week, each month and each year. What outcomes have you achieved? How does this fit with your initial plans?
- how many of your original plans did you follow through to successful execution?
- how many plans did you initiate but somehow lost interest and allowed to drift?
- how many plans remained in your head never to see the light of implementation day?
Don’t let yourself off the hook by finding excuses or “explanations” for set backs and difficulties.
“Good is the enemy of great.” A sense of “good” encourages complacency, the belief that this is “as good as it gets”, that I am doing the best I can under the “circumstances”. This thinking is the beginnings of a trajectory of decline and failure. Greatness is not necessarily harder than good, but it requires a willingness to do things differently and with a determined discipline. Watch out for “good thinking” (e.g. “I’ve made it now”) to keep challenging your assumptions of what is possible.
Review to improve. Keep looking for the little improvements. A 1% improvement across 10 different activities adds up to a significant change. After a meeting, for example, always ask participants:” how useful was it?” On a scale of 1-10, how would everyone evaluate this meeting and outcomes? Participants should write their ratings down anonymously. Ask someone to average the scores and give the group its score. Then ask; “what do we need to do to make the next meeting a 10?” Keep asking what was achieved and how can we improve for next time.
One thing at a time. You have a 101 different tasks - a mix of work priorities, family commitments and social demands - all requiring your attention, now. You can’t tackle all these tasks simultaneously. So, prioritise. And then focus on each individual task, one at a time, directing your energy to concentrate on that one task. Don’t allow other priorities or pressures invade your mental space.