Motivation is triggered by making choices that show you are in control, and that you are moving towards meaningful goals. Changing the way you look at your tasks by turning a chore into a choice will change the way you get things done.
A lot of people don’t know how to force themselves to start something hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it. Other factors come into play of course, and some people who do things right might still fail in the end. But that’s another story. At the level of this article, what matters is to get your motivation going.
Make yourself feel in charge by asking yourself why you are doing this. Explain to yourself why the choice you’re making to work on weekends is not only an affirmation of your values and your goals, but also a much more certain path to success than watching TV.
Finally, acknowledge that once you’ve taken the first short-term step, it is so much easier to keep going. You spending this Saturday on your laptop is a short-term commitment part of a bigger purpose. And starting to type the first sentence, to draw the first character, to sketch the first idea, will most likely get you going for the next few hours.
Motivation is part of the answer to getting to work. But towards what goal? If you’re trying to get to work on something, you probably already know what your bigger purpose is. Helping others, gaining financial independence, traveling around the world, fighting climate change…
However, if you don’t define specific actionable steps to get there, you risk blinding yourself with easy-to-reach targets that don’t actually get you closer to your goal.
Here are ways to avoid taking the wrong direction:
Track your progress
Your tasks should be as quantifiable as possible.
- If you’re a blogger, track the number of articles you post.
- If you’re an artist, track the amount of self-promotion you’re doing.
- If you’re writing a book, track the number of pages you write…
You get the point. Quantify and set targets based on numbers as much as possible. It will not only regenerate your momentum, but also make sure you’re on track.
Track your time
Tracking your progress goes hand in hand with tracking your time. When you’re working on a project you’re motivated about, time flies, and you might lose sight of where you are on your timeline. Set goals for yourself as if you were working for a company, and give yourself as little wiggle room as possible to postpone. Your company is you, and running the show requires self-discipline.
Be realistic
Don’t have too easy-to-reach targets that won’t get you anywhere, but don’t have targets you won’t reach in time either. Learn to know yourself and what you can achieve, and plan accordingly. Don’t push yourself too hard, but hard enough to be better than your average you.
Distractions will always come your way, no matter what. Keeping your focus throughout your plan is important. The best way to do that is to build mental models. That is, tell yourself a story about what you expect to see when you get to work.
- What will happen first?
- What distractions are likely to occur?
- How will you handle those distractions?
- How will you know you’ve succeeded?
- What is necessary for success?
- What will happen after that task?
You can even push the projection further and be more precise, specifically about your environment. The more precise, the more focused you will be when your plan encounters the real life.
- What will be on your desk?
- Who will be around you when you work?
- What will the weather be like?
- Should you make coffee for yourself?
As we said before, distractions will always come your way, and with distractions come decisions. What to say yes to, what to push away?
You will be much more apt to make a smart decision when the unexpected happens if you envision the different outcomes of that decision.
For instance, you might get invited for a drink after work, while you were planning to work on your project at home.
- In one outcome, you say no and you get home to work.
- In a second outcome, you say yes and the night drags on. You get home tired and got nothing done.
- In a third potential outcome, you say yes, but only for an hour, and you get home in time to still finish some work.
The number of outcomes is infinite, so you need to narrow it down to the most likely ones. If you know yourself and anticipate that you will end up spending 3 hours at the bar, then you already know the answer to your fiend’s suggestion.
For tougher decisions than a drink at the bar, the same principle applies, only a bit more complex. You might have to do some research to envision the possible scenarios, the most likely outcomes, and consequently the best decision.
If you want to get better at what you do, you have to learn from external sources. And how do you memorise and apply what you learn? By playing with the data.
Painters study other artists’ paintings, or read about their favourite artists. Writer read other people’s books, musicians play songs from their favourites bands. Tons of studies have shown that people who repeat, copy, write the things they learned, remember a lot more and for a lot longer than people who passively learn about something.
Good artists copy, great artists steal
— Pablo Picasso
When you encounter new information, force yourself to do something with it. It can be simple, like re-writing what you read. Or more complex, like drawing graphs and curves from data you studied. You can also explain what you learned to other people, or how what you learned can be applied to one of your ideas.
Whatever it is, make sure you play with the data you learn.
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This article was originally posted at https://medium.com/swlh/the-5-pillars-of-getting-things-done-391d1a4e8aa8
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