A good friend of mine used to have a saying, “Do something. Even if it’s wrong.” In other words, get up off your duff and give yourself permission to motivate yourself.
Sometimes procrastination and stress come from trying for perfection. We’re afraid to do something because we’re afraid we won’t do it right.
Be willing to make mistakes — hey we all do, here and there, right? But doing something is better than getting bogged down.
But organizing yourself is a step towards getting stuff done. And in fact getting your tasks organized will relieve stress. And the small amount of time it takes to do this will make your jobs go faster in the end.
I used to have a fantastic book on success tactics. Sadly, I don’t recall the title and thanks to my house fire I can’t walk over to my bookshelf and pull it down. But I gleaned some important information from it, which I’ll share with you. Over the years I’ve added my own thoughts to it as well.
This is a tip I share with my clients at least once a week, often more.
Make a to-do list. Then divide it up. Make that list all over again. But this time, ask yourself three important questions,”How long will it take?” and “How important is it?” Finally ask, “Is it something I want to do?
If it’s fast and it’s important: Get it done. Get it knocked off your list. Cross it off and feel that satisfaction that comes from having accomplished a task. Look at how much shorter your list is now,
If it’s slow and it’s important: Work on it next. You might want to try doing what we call in hypnosis, “Chunking it down.” If several steps need to be done to accomplish your task take each of those steps and do them one at a time.
If it’s fast but low priority: In between dealing with the slow important things, do one of these. Cross it off the list and feel great all over again.
Here’s where you have to do some soul searching. Is it something you really want to do?
If the answer is yes, then by all means, keep it on your list.
And if the answer is no, then do you really need it on that list? Would it be better to just cross it off the list right now?
Is it possible to pay someone to do it? Or is it possible to barter? If you have a job that has to be done and you don’t want to do it, maybe there’s someone you can trade off with. Maybe they even have a job that you’re good at and they’re not.
For instance my girlfriend doesn’t know how to sew. I love to sew, but I don’t do it often enough. Helping her gives me an excuse to get some of my own done as well.
If it still has to get done, or you still want to do it, but it’s not a big priority, then keep it on your list. Do it once the important jobs are finished. Remember to look over that list on a regular basis. In March, making that Halloween costume might be low priority. In October, it’s probably higher.