New Year’s almost here and this is about the time that people buy gym memberships, diet books, and plan big projects. For creative types, that means planning to do something creative everyday to a schedule that will ultimately lead to a project being complete by a specific date. But so many New Year’s resolutions are broken in the first week, partly because of the fact that it is now expected that we break them. So what can you do to prevent yourself from breaking your New Year’s resolutions? I’ll try to answer that.
The Romance of Planning
Most people get pleasure from planning to do better or more than they actually do from doing better or more to improve their lives. It’s weird but we get satisfaction from the thought of going to the gym, going on a diet, or planning out our big projects, but don’t get nearly as much satisfaction from doing those things. That’s why so many New Year’s resolutions are so quickly broken. The pleasure that should come from success has already been felt. Some people who have a high amount of anxiety also become over-planners. They can spend hours upon hours, planning tasks years into the future. Hours that could be spent on the actual tasks. Task programs such as Asana, Todoist, and Wunderlist become addictive and planning becomes an obsession. The best way to stave off both these situations? Don’t plan at all. Or make sure your plan is incredibly general and freeform. Don’t tell yourself that you are going to do an aerobic exercise tomorrow. Tell yourself you’re going to do some kind of physical activity. Don’t tell yourself you’re going to write a chapter in this specific project tomorrow. Tell yourself you’re going to have a creative period tomorrow. You won’t know your mood tomorrow. And those of us who get pleasure from planning can end up locking ourselves up when it comes actually to doing the planned task because one, we already felt the satisfaction of making the plan, and two, we aren’t really in the mood for the specifics we created for ourselves to follow. Also, don’t tell a lot of people what you are planning to do. Tell people what you’ve managed to do. They will reward you the same for your plan as they for what you’ve accomplished and you don’t want to further associate pleasure with plans.
Ah, I’ll Do It Tomorrow
With over-planning comes procrastination. I was supposed to write the Intro on 12.20, the previous section on 12.21, and this section on 12.22. Instead I’m writing all three on 12.24 (yes, I’m working on Christmas Eve). Was I not working on those days? No, I absolutely was. I just wasn’t working on my blog. I thought to myself, these things are small, I can do them later. Right now, I’d rather read these chapters I’ve planned for myself or work on videos, but as easy as these sections are going to be to write, I don’t need to do them now. Especially since I’m on vacation from my day job. I’ve got all the time in the world. That last thought is the death knell of getting work done. Even though I have less free time during the days I work at my day job, I’m typically more productive on those days. This is something some of you may have felt. Where does this conditioning come from? My guess is school and work. We are so used to having a set schedule from an early age and are taught that there are productive days and days for fun. If we consider our personal projects (exercise, diet, cleaning, and creative tasks) work, than those are only for the so called productive days. Time off from work and weekends are for fun. How do we solve this? Two different ways: one, turn free days into pseudo work days. People who own their own businesses do it, so can you. Create a schedule to follow and start following it the moment you wake up, including waking up at a certain time. Sleeping in is not conducive to getting anything done. Or two, don’t consider these things work. Rework your thoughts to think of them as fun. I don’t have to write this. I get to write this. A combination of the two can work wonders on your productivity and help alleviate a good amount (but not all!) of procrastination.
Checking Things Off: It’s Habit Forming
If you do still have a ton of tasks in some kind of task management software, or even in paper form, and you do manage to mark one or two off, you may notice that you start getting pleasure from crossing them off. Almost as pleasurable as planning to do something, checking items off a to do list can be its own kind of satisfaction. This is helpful if planning is an obsession that can’t be helped. And maybe planning to plan, as in setting aside time to plan or listing it as a task, can help minimize the amount of time one spends doing it. It will also help you associate doing those planned tasks with planning itself and get you started on being addicted to getting stuff done. You’re gonna plan anyway, might as well make it part of your plan to do so. That may seem counter-intuitive, but it will also stop you from feeling defeated by the obsession with planning, because that is not helpful to moving on to your actual plans. Speaking of feeling bad . . .
Don’t Beat Yourself Up
If you fall behind, if you don’t do anything for your big goal in a day, if you feel you haven’t done enough today, don’t beat yourself up. This isn’t going to help you make progress the next day. It’s kind of like how AA can sometimes cause tailspin falls off the wagon. Well, I messed up a little bit, might as well mess up a lot. No. It’s okay. We aren’t perfect beings and we can’t predict what our day will bring. Just tell yourself that you’ll try to do better tomorrow. It’s not necessary to be perfect. It is necessary to try your best. That’s all you can ask of yourself. Be glad for whatever progress you’ve made and believe that you will make more in the future.
The Six Task Rule
Ivy Lee, a fore bearer of modern public relations, created an easy way to be productive every day. Before going to bed every night, he would write six tasks from most important to least important to do the next day, and when he woke, he would start at the top of the list and work his way down until all six were completed. A lot of people follow this method today and swear by it. This method is better for those who have several projects going at once. Give it a test for a week if you’re daring and remember, don’t beat yourself up if you fail at all or all the way.
Or the One Thing a Day
When I was earning my degrees, one professor, who had a reputation for being extremely productive, had some advice, advice she had gained as she was entering her doctorate. Graduate degrees are notoriously stressful and hard to manage, and many people don’t complete them because they end up overwhelmed. The advice she received, which she was kind enough to impart upon her own students and colleagues, was that every day at least one task to the overall goal, in this case a doctorate, should be completed, even if that task is something as simple as buying paperclips. It makes the big goal seem less daunting if it is completed in smaller tasks, and if you only accomplish one little thing every day, you’re still making progress and you can feel good about that. This doesn’t involve any planning, only making sure some work is done every day. I suggest this one if you have a major project on your plate you are trying to complete. Remember if you miss a day, don’t fall off the wagon. Just try again the next day.
What Are You Waiting For?
I know that New Year’s Day isn’t for a few more days, but you probably shouldn’t wait for some special day to get started on doing better, on doing more. Just start tomorrow. Or better yet, start today. When I fall out of the habit of doing what I’m supposed to do, I don’t wait for some special day on the calendar to get back into the swing of things. I just start back up again. A person is less likely to start at all if they don’t start when they first get the idea. So don’t wait for the first. Write down the six things you’re going to do tomorrow tonight. Do one task for your project today. Get started now. It’s the best way to actually get anything done. And good luck with your endeavors!
Alex Miceli
The Empathetic Writer 