successful home working
Put things off – moi?
Procrastination is a constant issue for home workers, to go by my own experience and that of the people I meet at talks and workshops. Sometimes it’s not the usual tools and techniques (start with the bit you like doing, divide it up into small jobs etc) that get you moving on something you’ve been putting off, but something more random.
I’d been meaning to send out my work from home newsletter for several weeks, but it just wasn’t happening – until earlier this week I read Nicky Kriel’s post on The Watercooler about her struggles with the very same problem. I think it was realising that I’m not the only one and learning that Nicky had managed to overcome all her doubts and technical glitches that gave me the impetus to make a start. Yesterday the newsletter went out. Which is good because today I’m at Frome Jelly and couldn’t work on it, but at least I can use my nice bright jelly beans picture!
Oh, and you can sign up for the newsletter in the box in the right-hand sidebar. Just scroll down a bit.
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The 30 minute trick seemed to be really popular on my blog when suggested by guest blogger Laura Morris a few weeks ago. http://www.businessplusbaby.com/2010/07/28/top-tips-for-managing-your-time-as-a-mumpreneur/
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Hi Judy how did you get on? I’ve recently figured out an enhancement to this trick – as well as writing down what I hope to achieve in the next 25 mins (which I find in an important part of crystalising exactly what needs to be done), I also now write down the very next trivially small thing I need to do in order to get started. So for example if I’m preparing a presentation, it’s “Find the presentation template I was emailed the other day and open it in PowerPoint”. I really find this lowers the barrier for engaging in the task and then I tend to get on a roll and complete the task.
I think slicing tasks up is effective because it makes starting on seemingly over-whelming tasks much more possible, giving you a tangible amount of work you can do in manageable amount of time.
Ironically, it’s actually defining work to be done that seems to be 90% of the effort for me. It doesn’t take very long but requires the most mental energy.
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I think this is a vital point, Andrew, and accounts for that frequent feeling of ‘Why didn’t I do it ages ago?’ that we so often get when we do finally get round to doing something we’ve been putting off. As you say, it’s the idea of the whole task that is off-putting, whereas each little step is easily manageable.
As with anything new, it’s taking me a while to get into the swing of this. I tend to get on a roll and keep going until I’ve run out of energy and inspiration, instead of stopping at the appointed time and renewing both. Practice makes perfect etc..
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Absolutely. In fact I completed one of those “Why didn’t I do it ages ago?” tasks yesterday which had been on my GTD projects list for literally months – migrating our email over to a new system. I’d been putting it off after scanning the setup instructions and becoming paralysed by the fear of messing it up.
And how long do you think it took in the end, start to finish?
Yup – that’s right. 25 minutes.
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I am very glad that my procrastination is inspirational!