Recently I read an article on procrastination that explained that a sure-fire way to beat procrastination is to take a concrete first step.
In this season of resolutions for the new year, I realised why it is most people fail in their good intentions: the goal is not specific and/or progress is not measurable.
Combining the two ideas, I realised I had been beating procrastination all along by making micro-resolutions. They are my calendar entries. I enter everything I need to remember to do in calendar. So to start a task I put the first step into the calendar. Say I want to plan a trip to New Caledonia. The initial entry might be: Look up month-by-month climate to find best time to visit.
I have some ground rules on calendar entries. The task must be specific. I am allowed to prepone entries; if I can do a task ahead of time, I do it. I am allowed to postpone entries if something more urgent intervenes. I am not allowed to delete an entry until it's done. And preferably instead of deleting an entry, I edit it to make an upcoming task. So in the last example, once I have noted the best months, I would change the task to read: Look up ticket prices.
Calendar is the most important app on my smartphone. I'd rather give up email before calendar.
In this season of resolutions for the new year, I realised why it is most people fail in their good intentions: the goal is not specific and/or progress is not measurable.
Combining the two ideas, I realised I had been beating procrastination all along by making micro-resolutions. They are my calendar entries. I enter everything I need to remember to do in calendar. So to start a task I put the first step into the calendar. Say I want to plan a trip to New Caledonia. The initial entry might be: Look up month-by-month climate to find best time to visit.
I have some ground rules on calendar entries. The task must be specific. I am allowed to prepone entries; if I can do a task ahead of time, I do it. I am allowed to postpone entries if something more urgent intervenes. I am not allowed to delete an entry until it's done. And preferably instead of deleting an entry, I edit it to make an upcoming task. So in the last example, once I have noted the best months, I would change the task to read: Look up ticket prices.
Calendar is the most important app on my smartphone. I'd rather give up email before calendar.
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