Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Small Things Turn into Big Things

Tags

Action Steps, Analysis, Brainstorming, Overwhelm, Planning, Procrastination, Small things, tasks

We had some friends over on Saturday. They took Mom and Dad out to lunch. When they got back, we all congregated in the living room and talked about all kinds of things. One of the topics was overwhelm and a lack of time. Interestingly, we all came to the conclusion that taking a complex set of tasks and reducing that down was the best option. When you do that, time decompresses.

Think about the last overwhelming task you had to do. How long did you procrastinate because you did not know where to start. With each moment of procrastination, the pressure increases, and you begin to think you have no time to do anything. This is the time to decompress time by pulling apart that big project, whittling it down to individual tasks, and attacking those individual tasks one-by-one.

When you begin knocking out these little tasks, the bigger task they are a part of begins to get easier. You begin to see how the project will be finished. This occurs when you can break it up into smaller tasks. The project is no longer daunting. It is simply a collection of small tasks that must be completed in a particular order.

Steps

Look at your project

What has to happen to finish it

What phone calls, people, places, and materials are involved?

Make a list of every single thing you can think of to get this project completed.

Each “single thing” are the tasks you have to complete in order to finish the project

If you run across a “single thing” that is still too complex to deal with, break that down too!

Once you have all these things written down, take some time to organize these tasks by time and category.

What tasks have to happen first?

Once you come up with a semblance of order, begin to knock out these tasks

Re-evaluate

If you take the time to do this, you’ll find your “big” projects are just a collection of little tasks–tasks that are done easily and without any stress. Take the time to go through this exercise, particularly when you get the feeling of overwhelm. You’ll find that this exercise simplifies the project, and will help you overcome feelings of overwhelm.

I hope all of you are having a great day! Here’s to Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Sticking With It

Tags

Analysis, Changing Course, concentration, Important, motivation, Re-Defining, Re-focusing

Image by Erich Westendarp from Pixabay 

No better picture (depicted above) better explains what I’ve been going through the last few weeks. So many directions, so many goals, so many things. It’s so easy to go overboard (at least for me) when you are achieving what you want and you want more of it. The problem with this strategy is you find yourself spending too much time on too many things and this dilutes the efforts you are making on what’s really important. The key question: What is important?

I mentioned in a few posts how I’ve felt out of it lately. Lost, like I just moved to a new place and haven’t figured out where I am or what to do. I did some research. The research explained that this mindset comes throughout our lives from time-to-time. It suggested that the best action to take during these times is to re-examine one’s goals. We should take time to assess what we are doing. Do we want to continue? Do we want to change course?

I decided this was wise counsel. So I set out and looked at all the things I’m pursuing. I found a few things that needed changing.  I have always been the guy who wanted to do it all. The problem with that strategy is that you spread yourself too thin. You get everything done, but you sacrifice the deep focus required to get things done well.

So, I went through my rituals and eliminated my list down to the most important things I want to do in each of my critical areas: physical, spiritual, social, and mental. I am focusing on exercise (physical), spiritual exercises (spiritual), spending time with my loved ones (social), and writing/reading/learning (mental). My new list:

 

• Exercise daily
• Work on my book daily
• Learn to code daily
• Spiritual Exercises Daily
• Reading Daily

These are my critical daily tasks. If I can improve physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially, I’m good. I have to say this exercise helped. I feel more motivated. I also got myself feeling normal again. I don’t have that “out of place” feeling anymore.

If you ever feel out-of-place like I have, try this exercise out. It helped me. Have a great week, all!

Until next time…

Dave