5 Ways To Rescue An Unproductive Day
It's not like you don't have things
to do--some days just never get off the ground.
Some days you’re on fire. And some
days, you’re not. Every time you try to crank out a report, you wind up on Facebook.
You haven’t heard back from anyone whose input is necessary for a project. You
have a million things to do but you aren’t doing any of them.
Should you just write the day off?
If you want to take a break, go for
it. Breaks are productive! But if you’re determined to get things done,
snatching your day from the jaws of non-productivity is possible. The key
insight is that progress--of any sort--is surprisingly motivational. Generate
some progress, and you want to make more progress. Here’s how to get the
snowball started:
You’ve got big projects looming, but
you don’t feel like starting. Instead, enlist your inner organizer, and write
down every single thing that needs to be done. Break these steps into their
constituent parts until you find a handful of tasks--maybe sending a few
emails--that don’t require much mental energy. Do them. Now you’re on your way!
When I’m staring at an amorphous
mass of quotes and ideas I’m trying to string into something coherent, my
problem is that I usually can’t think of a brilliant opening paragraph. But I
often have at least one portion of the article I’m clear on, perhaps somewhere
in the middle. Why not start there? Write down whatever you know, however small
it seems, and then build around it.
You can’t make progress on today’s
issue, so spend time thinking about something unrelated. What would you like
your career to look like in five years? Could you find an accountability
partner to help you achieve a personal goal? What new people should you invite
to your annual Cinco de Mayo party? By the time you’ve drawn up the guest list,
you may decide to tackle today’s to-do list, too.
Good things happen when you get up
and move. You get more energy, and the random stimuli of the world gets your
brain turning in interesting ways. Go work in a coffee shop, the library, a
park bench. Try not taking your phone. By the time you return, people may have
finally returned your emails and phone calls, and you can take the next step
with their feedback.
It has to be done occasionally, and
if nothing else is happening, at least you can end the day with organized
files.
By Laura Vanderkamhttp://www.fastcompany.com/3022242/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/5-ways-to-rescue-an-unproductive-day?partner=newsletter
No comments:
Post a Comment