Monday
Aug172015
3 Ways to Get Very Little Accomplished


Ok, FOUR ways to get very little accomplished.
1. Ditch the plan for the day - If there is nothing specific for me to focus on doing when I wake up, I end up just going through the day in a reactive way. In other words, when I'm at my computer, I just respond to emails willy nilly, I get pulled in several directions as my phone rings, my email dings, and my cats sing (ok, meow, but that didn't rhyme). When I wake up, I need to have a goal in order to get me going. It could be to work on a specific project, to tie up some loose ends, or to head to the mountains for a hike. If I have even a simple game plan, it's more likely it will be executed.
2. Allow the details to overwhelm you - Often it's the small little things we need to do, and lots of them, that can overwhelm us. If I have 3 projects to do, but 17 little things to do, THOSE are the things that bug me the most. Unless I write them down and put a time estimate next to them to see how long each one will take, my mind blows these up and I get frustrated and stressed, which means I can't focus on the big picture. Once I realize each little thing only takes 2-10 minutes each, it puts them into perspective in my head, and I can relax more.
3. Get lost in email - yeah, yeah, I KNOW email is part of your job and reading and responding to your emails can help get things done. But honestly, how often does this happen:
- you read an email, don't want to deal with it, close it;
- read another email, maybe respond;
- open an email, read it, then realize you read it before and that's one you don't want to deal with now, close it;
- read an email and respond quickly,
- read an email, don't want to deal with it, close it;
- and on and on.
Before you know it, an hour (or 2 or 3) has passed and the real work you need to do has gone untouched. Right? If we actually deal with, or process, the email when we read it, and set a time limit on how long we are on email, then we could get out of the email trap and get to working on our actual work.
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