I spent an hour thinking about what I was going to write today, and got nowhere.
Then I looked at the clock and realised that if I didn’t get it sorted out, and quickly, I wasn’t going to eat.
Suddenly it was all done, in about ten minutes.
If you’re tired or if you’re feeling a bit down, little tasks can take forever.
So a useful strategy (which I forgot yesterday) can be to give yourself an artificial deadline.
Say to yourself ‘I’m going to have done X by 9 o’clock’.
In fact I sometimes use the countdown timer on my phone for this very reason.
In advertising I was often racing against the clock to meet a deadline.
So if you’re struggling to get something done and it just isn’t happening, set a deadline of your own.
There. That’s better. I got it done, and ate some lunch too.
Ha! The irony…I opened your email as part of my mindless procrastination today because I was feeling tired and down… you got me! Off to get the stopwatch 🙂
Another idea — stop thinking that you need to create a major opus (overwhelming) and just get the job done (small steps, each one do-able). Then enjoy the satisfaction and relief in completion.