How I started doing less (not more) and still make progress
Yesterday I met a friend for lunch and she was telling me all about the progress that she was making in setting up her new business. As a fellow expat, here in Bahrain, doing this outside her home country has been a lot to navigate and required a steep learning curve and a lot of support! And on top of this my friend is a mother of two young children, so her time is not only limited but always full of distractions
Dealing with distractions
As I listened to my friend, I could really relate to the struggle of dealing with distractions. Even though I don't have young children to take care of, I still have…
messages popping up on whatsapp, linkedin, instagram or email all day every day, some from family and friends, others from clients who I support via whatsapp between sessions
the imaginary gauntlet of the washing / drying area every time I go from my office space to the kitchen to make myself a cuppa - knowing if I allow myself to get distracted here I’ll likely avoid all sorts of other more important things
a husband that comes home from work when I am still in the middle of my day and mid-flow (his days are 6am-4pm while mine tend to be 10am-7pm)
two cats who come and sit on my keyboard just when I am in the middle of something (to be honest I don’t actually mind that one!)
The challenge when working on anything of significance (be it your own company, a busy job or even a side project or hobby), is finding the headspace to focus on it.
Headspace and getting in the flow is necessary so you make progress and build up momentum. Having tried MANY things over the years to deal with my own procrastination and distraction issues, I shared some nuggets with my friend based on what had worked for me.
Just pick a single (important) thing
No matter how long your “To Do List” I have found that the simplest approach is best. So rather than doing lots of complicated assessments about which task is more important than another, just pick one. The trick here is it has to be something of significance, but that doesn’t mean it will necessarily take a long time.
For example. the most important thing might be emailing someone about a possible job opening before it closes. It will take 30 minutes to draft and send that email, but may lead to an amazing opportunity.
When I take this approach, I find that I find that I get that single task done, and then have the time, headspace and motivation for another
Why?
Well with the first task done, there is usually a huge sense of achievement because you've done something that was really important for you.
You also take something off the list which may have been niggling or stressing you (and let's be honest it always feels good to get that little dopamine hit from completing a task!)
And, it often puts some of the other tasks that are on the To Do List into a bit of perspective. You realise that of the other 8 things on the list, 5 of them weren't that important anyway, they were in fact just distractions dressed up as tasks.
I know this strategy may sound too simple to be effective, but as someone who is very guilty of making big plans and not actually following them through this approach really really works for me. And the kind of progress you can make doing that every day is not insignificant.
Celebrating and remaining positive
It's really really really easy when you've got big dreams and big ambitions, to look at the actions that you're taking and hear your saboteur voices critiquing your progress.
They may review what you have achieved that day and say “that's pathetic progress” or “that's not gonna be enough to reach the goal or desired outcome” but actually the compound effect of doing one single thing one important thing every day will have a HUGE impact - and that is worth celebrating!
So rather than allowing your saboteurs take away the enjoyment of your efforts, celebrate your effort and stay positive. Maybe it's an achievements journal or folder where you keep track of all of the things that you have achieved and the wins from that week / month. Or even sharing with someone else what you have done and how proud you are of your efforts.
“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.”
Jack Canfield
So no matter how small the action seems or how little it seems to have moved the overall dial celebrate the fact that you're even doing it and stay positive about your effort rather than your outcome. Every day you're ticking one important thing off your list you’ll find everything you do is so much more fun and enjoyable, and so the momentum with naturally build!
If you ever want to talk about how I can help you make more progress by doing less in your own career and life you know where I am - lets chat!