If you’re struggling with completing things, procrastination or a time of laziness, this blog might be for you.
I sometimes get asked, how do you get so much done? It’s nothing to flex about. With experience I think focus just gets easier and easier. Ignore the noise, filter your inputs and keep your high standards. We all struggle at times though.
We all meet periods of slowness (when comparing with our vision of life progress) or times where distractions or scattered energy take away our focus.
I used to default to lists as my main management tool or motivational source. Make a list, write it down, publicly call it out, put it in the NY resolutions, make a this, make a that …. there’s endless ways to approach how to get things done in your life.
Although I still use lists, now they’re limited to what is achievable in the day.
One secret to completing something, is not the tool or list, it’s our commitment.
If you commit internally (to yourself) that you’ll complete something, you will. Where and in what you write that thing down, or stick onto a whiteboard etc – doesn’t really matter.
When you internalise the commitment of completing it, you will.
You may not get it done in a day, many things take sustained effort. With an internal agreement of commitment though, completion is within you.
If you’re unable to complete something, your internal voice should be sending alerts, “I don’t think so…!!!”. With practice, we can train this internal voice for more and more accuracy.
Here’s what I do the night before or early in the morning. Choose the things for the day (usually 1-5). Better if they can be competed today. I order them around whatever else will affect work during the day (kids, other etc). Then I start and finish one and move to the next.
It doesn’t always go like that, but as a general pattern it works. Take the time to finish one thing and tell yourself it’s done (affirmation, release). Then move to the next.
With each task, I reaffirm the commitment to complete it, then just do it. If I have any doubts around it, I don’t even start it.
Work like a ninja. That’s what my Japanese ceo friend used to tell me. Attack and move like a ninja, get the job done.
Hope this helps you get things done.
I know that when I struggle with focus, I come back to the smaller commitments and completing things one by one. It’s a solid method to rebuild confidence and momentum.