Doing what you HATE -- it can actually be FUN
There is something very freeing about making yourself do things you hate. Sound contradictory? I guess it is. But think about your own mental to-do lists: how many things do you have floating around in your mind right now that you should get around to, but don't want to take care of yet?
Maybe they aren't priorities. Perhaps you've put these things off for the last year, because it didn't really affect anything either way. But what it did effect, was your peace of mind. Because it takes energy to have these things floating around in your brain. That's a cost to you.
Think about how often these to-do items pop into your mind -- each time they do, they steal thought energy from other places. You have less room to be creative, to be objective, to adequately deal with your day-t0-day life, the more "clutter" you have in your mind.
When your mind is cluttered with things you haven't gotten around to, your brain doesn't stop working. It's similar to hitting snooze on an alarm. That annoying buzzing will keep coming on until you get up and turn it off. Same with your cluttered thoughts. Those forgotten to-do items will keep popping up into your mind until you do them.
Of course, trying to tackle everything on your list from the past year will also be stressful. So it's best to create a plan.
First, make a long, long list of all of those forgotten items that annoy you -- maybe you haven't been to the dentist in two years? Or have needed to buy stamps for a month, but the line is always too long. Perhaps there is a letter you haven't sent, something you really need to research on google, or a phone call you've been avoiding. Put everything down on this list and make it as long as possible. Challenge yourself to make the list as long as possible.
Next, break each task down into ridiculously easy steps. For example: getting a part-time job sounds hard. So break it down into simple steps: spell check resume (that takes what, a minute? Easy). Type monster.com into browser (duh, a child could do that), type "librarian" into the box (simple!), bookmark all matches (takes a second), write 3 paragraph standard cover letter (might take 20 minutes), change form letter t fit each job (editing maybe five words at the most), email letter and resume to each job (fast).
Now assign a priority to each easy task. Don't stress about this too much -- you'll know pretty quickly what really needs to get done. Keep it simple with a 1, 2, 3 rating, or the categories of ASAP, soon, and much later.
Then place each task onto a calendar -- try to schedule everything within the next 30 days! Schedule high-priority items sooner.
Now, instead of your brain popping up mental snooze alarm reminders for "difficult" tasks, distracting you, annoying you and stealing your brain power that you need for creativity and other tasks -- you can instead relax! Just follow your plan and it will tell you exactly what you need to do each day! You can take comfort in the fact that each step is so easy, it will only take you 5-10 minutes.
The benefit to having everything scheduled is you save quite a bit of time. You don't have to remember to do anything and you don't have to decide what to do each day, or stress about how to break a big, difficult action like "applying for jobs" down -- it's already broken down and scheduled for you!
The peace of mind you get from this is amazing, plus the productivity without the usual stress or needed caffeine. Give it a try, even with just a few tasks that have been bugging you. The difference is bigger than the time it takes to kill those little tasks.
Maybe they aren't priorities. Perhaps you've put these things off for the last year, because it didn't really affect anything either way. But what it did effect, was your peace of mind. Because it takes energy to have these things floating around in your brain. That's a cost to you.
Think about how often these to-do items pop into your mind -- each time they do, they steal thought energy from other places. You have less room to be creative, to be objective, to adequately deal with your day-t0-day life, the more "clutter" you have in your mind.
When your mind is cluttered with things you haven't gotten around to, your brain doesn't stop working. It's similar to hitting snooze on an alarm. That annoying buzzing will keep coming on until you get up and turn it off. Same with your cluttered thoughts. Those forgotten to-do items will keep popping up into your mind until you do them.
Of course, trying to tackle everything on your list from the past year will also be stressful. So it's best to create a plan.
First, make a long, long list of all of those forgotten items that annoy you -- maybe you haven't been to the dentist in two years? Or have needed to buy stamps for a month, but the line is always too long. Perhaps there is a letter you haven't sent, something you really need to research on google, or a phone call you've been avoiding. Put everything down on this list and make it as long as possible. Challenge yourself to make the list as long as possible.
Next, break each task down into ridiculously easy steps. For example: getting a part-time job sounds hard. So break it down into simple steps: spell check resume (that takes what, a minute? Easy). Type monster.com into browser (duh, a child could do that), type "librarian" into the box (simple!), bookmark all matches (takes a second), write 3 paragraph standard cover letter (might take 20 minutes), change form letter t fit each job (editing maybe five words at the most), email letter and resume to each job (fast).
Now assign a priority to each easy task. Don't stress about this too much -- you'll know pretty quickly what really needs to get done. Keep it simple with a 1, 2, 3 rating, or the categories of ASAP, soon, and much later.
Then place each task onto a calendar -- try to schedule everything within the next 30 days! Schedule high-priority items sooner.
Now, instead of your brain popping up mental snooze alarm reminders for "difficult" tasks, distracting you, annoying you and stealing your brain power that you need for creativity and other tasks -- you can instead relax! Just follow your plan and it will tell you exactly what you need to do each day! You can take comfort in the fact that each step is so easy, it will only take you 5-10 minutes.
The benefit to having everything scheduled is you save quite a bit of time. You don't have to remember to do anything and you don't have to decide what to do each day, or stress about how to break a big, difficult action like "applying for jobs" down -- it's already broken down and scheduled for you!
The peace of mind you get from this is amazing, plus the productivity without the usual stress or needed caffeine. Give it a try, even with just a few tasks that have been bugging you. The difference is bigger than the time it takes to kill those little tasks.
http://www.yourdreamslifecoach.com
Want to find the best life coach for you and your goals? Need a new life? Career or personal dreams? Find out more about Life Coaching. I'm a NYC Certified Life Coach serving professional, ambitious clients.
Comments