Has your “to-do” list spilled over to a second page? Do you have a project that you have been meaning to complete, but just can’t seem to find the time? Are you putting off that “big” project because it is just too intimidating? Are you trying to get it “perfect” before getting it out there?
I admit, I suffer from a perfectionist personality. I hesitate to move forward on something because, in my mind, I have not analyzed it enough and it is not perfect. Who’s to say what is perfect? This website was a good example. It has been almost four months in the making, and I was still not live! Enough! So, no more “paralysis by analysis for me”, the site is up, I have a handful of blog posts, and I could not be more excited. Once I let a few key friends know I was up and running, I got nothing but positive feedback. Good for me, I just should have done it sooner! Aren’t we are all guilty of things like this? For today’s post, I wanted to offer some tips to shrink your list and get the big project done.
To begin, “JUST DO IT”. Our friends at Nike have it right here, your project will never get done unless you start it. Procrastination is a killjoy when it comes to things like this. Your first step has to be deciding to get on with it.
Next, break down the big project into small pieces. For instance, if the project is getting your website built, divide the various parts of this big project into smaller parts. For instance, you could work on the page content one day and your auto-responder series the next. Or, maybe you work on it page by page, adding content for only one page each day. That’s what I did, and about a week later, I was done!
Now that you have broken down your project into smaller bites, you need to set aside the time. Big tasks can seem daunting, especially those that require intense thought and creativity. It also very easy to get lost inside of a project and spend the entire day deciding what font to use in your header, right? I found myself doing this a lot and to help keep my day moving, I purchased a kitchen timer for my office and I now segment my day into 90 minute “blocks”. I set the timer for 90 minutes, then when time’s up, I move on the next part of myday. My 90 minute “creative” block, when I do things like making blog posts and adding content to the site happens between 10:00 am and 11:30 am each, it is when I am at my creative peak, so I want to be engaged with creative tasks furing that segment of my day.
So, the next time you find yourself procrastinating on a project, I hope these suggestions will help you get to “done”!
