Why don’t you give yourself a break?
August seems an apt time to introduce one of the most useful wild cards in the ‘Getting Projects Done ’ toolkit. Some years ago I was involved in a major project that had serious complications, and I was amazed when the director in charge suddenly took the afternoon off and went to the cinema. But, when he came back the next day he quickly fixed everything! One of the many things I learned from him was that when you’re stuck you have to break out some way – and THAT is something you have to be deliberate and sometimes courageous about.
Luckily, we have genius on our side!
- ‘Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ Albert Einstein
- ‘Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen’. Leonardo da Vinci
Pressure doesn’t help creativity, crushing responsibility doesn’t help in making the best decisions, and neither does exhaustion. And, the search for perfection is a sure way to paralysis by inaction or OCD - and it’s not healthy, in any sense.
Make breaks a deliberate part of your work routine: Why not try:
- The Pomodoro Technique. It takes about 5 minutes to learn and is very helpful both personally and as the basis of the ‘agile’ project management
- A tip from TMI ) - schedule a daily ‘meeting with yourself’
- Tim Gallwey’s STOP technique:
S. Step back
T: Think
O: Organise your thoughts
P: Proceed
So, what stops you from stopping? Just imagine what you might achieve if you gave yourself a little time to regroup, to dream and wonder.
Fraser Speirs - Blog - Future Shock
Petronius
Well, you have just such a bank and its name is Time. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as a loss whatever of these you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each night it closes the record of the passing day. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the morrow. You must live in the present - on today’s deposit. Invest it so you get the most in health, happiness, and success.
Why did so many successful entrepreneurs and startups come out of PayPal? Answered by Insiders
Very interesting and useful study. The short answer is that they “built a “scrappy” culture. No matter what problems they faced, they would find a way to solve them”. Read on and you’ll see that actually they were incredibly focussed on doing (only) whatever really helps get projects done.
Interesting discussion about motivating yourself and others.
As an aside, I again notice differences between how Europeans and US writers/academics approach work questions. Partly, that’s style. But I think there’s something else. As a - probably gross - generalisation, Europeans are less theoretical, more realistic and accepting of differences between individuals and organisation cultures. And I see that play out particularly in how international organisations approach change.
I Don’t Want To Be Motivated By Anyone But Myself « Cirillo’s Scrapbook
Superbly simple, low tech way of actually doing all those things I’ve been planning. And free, too.
It can be hard to take on big projects and challenges and even harder to actually complete them, but by identifying the root cause of our hesitation or procrastination, we’ll be much more likely to tackle those big challenges and get things done.
What are some of the biggest obstacles that hold you back when it comes to big projects and challenges?
