How to deal with difficult cases? Ambitious goals?! how to eat an elephant...

Close running programs

We audited the time and took a snapshot of the day. Today we will conduct an audit of what invisibly poisons our lives and robs us of energy.

Imagine you want to watch a movie on your computer. But at the same time, you left a bunch of programs open: a visual editor, a browser with a bunch of tabs, Skype, and a few documents. You open the movie, but for some reason it goes in fits and starts - it slows down. The computer hums, overheats in an attempt to master the many parallel processes, but eventually burns out.

Few thought that the same thing happens to us when we open and do not complete a lot of tasks. Our brain remembers each one, because what has been started must be completed. Donating a book to the library, altering your favorite dress, repairing your boots… These “dangling” tasks include everything that is classified as “put off for later”. These are not the first priority. But we keep them in mind for when it comes. free time. And even when it appears, we do not want to deal with them.

What to do?

Take an hour, no less. Take a notebook and write down all the tasks that you have put on standby time. All-all. You will spend the whole hour remembering something else. But don't stop until the hour has passed. All. Now assign a deadline to each task on the list. and figure out the easiest and fastest way to get rid of it. Delegate whenever possible. Fit it into your schedule. Do what you want, but you have a month to get rid of this list.

Delegation is not a luxury

In the last article, we took a snapshot of the day. This is a very important exercise. In addition to helping you find gaps in your schedule, taking a snapshot also helps us see the activities we spend the most time on. And he also shows us how we delay the preparation for affairs, unconsciously trying to delay them in time. They should be delegated as much as possible.

Delegation is considered to be financial opportunity hire an assistant. But it's not. In fact, the first to whom we can delegate is the inner circle - relatives. As a rule, they are happy to help us, because for many, what is a difficult routine for you is not burdensome at all.

Connect the kids and generally anyone who has a lot of free time. You can also connect friends. Using the theory of six handshakes - you can always find the right master and use its services at a big discount or barter. Moms can unite and take turns arranging at home kindergarten. Today, one sits with the children of all her friends, giving them the opportunity to spend the day as they want, and tomorrow they change.

Eat a big elephant

When we unloaded our heads from small background tasks and delegated some of the routines, the time came for those big things that had not been reached for a long time.

Psychologists call such tasks elephants for their immensity.

It is not at all clear from which side to approach them and how to start. We'll eat this elephant piece by piece, then it won't look so big.

The first thing we do is we select a task and set a deadline for it. Now we need to split the task into stages. Then we divide them into tasks and describe each task in points and so on until we reach monosyllabic actions. For example, a "go to the dentist" project might long years hang in memory until a toothache. But in our methodology, in order to get to the dentist, you need to schedule a visit to the doctor point by point. For example:

1. Choose five dental clinics in the area of ​​​​the house.

2. Call a friend who recently recommended a dentist friend of hers. Call five clinics and a girlfriend's dentist friend.

3. Compare prices and guarantee levels.

4. Make an appointment.

5. Go to an appointment.

In this form, the project has a much greater chance of being realized than if it is just an entry in the diary "Go to the dentist." In order for everything to work out exactly, each of these six items must have its own deadline. And note: some actions take 5 minutes. But all together they pull on the whole task. And so, in segments of 5 minutes or an hour, they can be scattered for each day of the week, and now in a week we ate an elephant!

in continuation of the theme of fluffy tails. Having worked with the list of your unfinished tasks, you will clearly find in them those that do not fit into the period of half an hour or an hour. They require significantly more time and involve multiple steps. They are so voluminous that we sometimes do not know which side to approach them. Such elephants. And since they are also not very urgent, the interaction with them is postponed and postponed.
As a rule, these are things that are actually important. Yes, they do not burn on time, but they can qualitatively change our lives. They can take her to new level. They require us to overcome and effort. And so all the time I want to allocate more time for them to deal with them with sense, feeling, arrangement. We are, as it were, internally preparing for them. We are gaining strength.
Yes, we are getting ready to eat the elephant instead of already eating it. More precisely, we are preparing to live, instead of already living.
This is very familiar to me too. And now there are several such elephants in front of me. And for the second week I have been “keeping them in the freezer” instead of starting to “butcher the carcass”. And this is the second week when the outside world with its affairs controls me, and I do not control outside world based on your goals. Sad? A little yes. What drives me when I do this? My desire for solidity. Sometimes redundant. It may be something else for you, something of your own.
Why am I sharing this? To the fact that elephants arise in each of us. More precisely, anyone who wants more from life. Because we tend to swim against the current. And sometimes the current is stronger, and we allow it to carry us away. Like in my example. The main thing is to catch yourself in time and start rowing in the right direction. To your goals. And if we want more, then our goals are usually ambitious. Ambitious for ourselves at this stage of life. We kind of challenge ourselves. A challenge, but will I be able to master this elephant or not?
So, back to big things (elephants). They can be overpowered by eating them piece by piece. Break a large project into a number of large chunks. And then each large piece is divided into several smaller ones. And each small for several small tasks. You will get a diagram in the form of a tree. And every small task is a specific deed or action that can be done using the quick shot method. And there, in small pieces, you yourself will not notice how the big elephant begins to decrease in size.
The main thing is to start by taking a little time each day to think through the plan for "butchering the carcass", and then to complete the tasks on the elephant. Give this task the status of a priority and complete it as early as possible before the rest of the cases. Then there will be a feeling that you live based on your interests.

And I liked it. With enthusiasm, I rushed to apply the acquired knowledge in Everyday life. And you know, it worked! My career began to move forward, life sparkled with new colors.

The condition is set. In front of you is a huge mammal. The average male weighs 5 tons, 3.5 meters high. Whether you can eat it depends on your life and the well-being of all mankind. It is impossible to involve other people under the terms of the assignment. Your actions?

Right! An elephant can only be eaten piece by piece! Having prepared necessary tools to cut the carcass, you shred the whopper into pieces, and after a certain time (it depends on your personal metabolism) - the planet is saved, and you bathe in the rays of well-deserved fame.

Now let's move from metaphors to business.

What are your long-term goals for today? Lose 20 kilos? Learn Swahili? Or write, finally, an incorruptible from the life of the elves of the Middle World? Don't be shy if someone outsiders thinks your goal is shallow and mundane. There are dwarf elephants, and there are African ones. In addition, no one forces you to notify others about your desires.

In sweet fantasies, have you been basking on the golden sand of the beach for a long time, showing envious women and admiring men your slimmed, rejuvenated body? Or maybe you are clutching to your chest a book that smells sweetly of fresh printing ink with your name on the cover? Or... Why did you need Swahili, I couldn't think of. But those are your problems. It is necessary - it is necessary!

How much can you dream? Let's get to work!

The first step is to prepare the necessary tools.

Addresses of fitness centers closest to the house, Russian-Swahili dictionary, A. Pupkin's self-instruction manual "How to write a masterpiece." Approximately such a set seems to me, constrained by a lack of information about your desires. Your imagination is boundless. You have long thought about what can help in the work. So - keep it up! Only advice from me: no need to delay the preparatory stage. Time is working against you in this case.

The second stage is control.

By the way, how much time did you allot yourself to solve the global problem? Year? half a year? Don't know yet? Right! It all depends on many factors: investment, time that you can devote to solving the problem, physical capabilities.

Divide the elephant into small pieces. The kind that won't choke you. Lose a pound a week, write two pages a day, learn 500 new words a month. We draw a plate where we indicate the initial and desired data. Many empty cells in the table will be needed to enter intermediate results. Voila!

And do not forget to congratulate yourself on small victories. Each of them is a stepping stone to a big goal.

Stage three is action.

The most boring part. Here you just need to do business. Do not succumb to laziness and weakness, find the necessary inspiration and motivation. And work, work, work...

Stage four - victory.

Fanfare sounds. You look back, remember what a great job you have done and proudly say: “I ate an elephant!”

The path to the goal is often not easy. But let us not be afraid of difficulties. There is a lot of pleasure in overcoming them. Now, back to our elephants! Bon appetit!

Procrastination - this seemingly complicated term actually means the desire to put off all things “for later”. “I’ll start writing a project on Monday”, “I’ll call clients after lunch”, “I can’t start writing a term paper, everything will be left for the last week again”, “I’ll start writing an article to finish it 10 minutes before the deadline” - such an approach to doing familiar to almost everyone.

How to deal with procrastination, how to stop postponing life for later, without being distracted by trifles that steal precious time?

The main components of procrastination

A lot of research by psychologists and neuroscientists has been devoted to this phenomenon, a scientific foundation has been put under the symptoms of procrastination, and there is even a formula that describes it.

Components of procrastination:

• Low expectations. You put off doing something you're not sure will succeed. Do not start using a diet because you doubt its effectiveness; do not write a book because you do not think that it will be interesting to readers; do not sign up for masseur courses because you are sure that you will not find a job in this specialty, etc.
• The delayed task has no value for you.. We avoid doing things that are unpleasant for us, especially if we have alternatives pastime.

  What difference does it make when the desktop is put in order (windows are washed, documents are sorted, tax return), a day earlier or a day later? In the meantime, you can play solitaire (flip through magazines, skip a glass of beer, play "Tanks").

• The impulsiveness of someone who plans their time. Such people, ardently surrendering to one side of their lives, completely lose sight of other problems that require attention.

  I did not book a hotel room in advance, because at first I was busy with more urgent matters, and then I simply forgot; did not submit documents for advanced training on time, because at first he handed over the project, and then family problems piled up - many people who spontaneously build their lives can give enough of such examples.

• delay, delay. The setup is something like this: the more time before the event, the fewer steps are taken to implement it. Almost certainly, you had to finish in a hurry what could have been done slowly, and you knew about the deadline for the project (term paper, report, article, book) long before the last line (deadline).

  And how unpleasant it is to realize that the work could have been done better, brighter, better. This component is most pronounced in impulsive people.

How to deal with procrastination using this formula? It's simple:

• increase faith in success (share of expectation),
• add value to the event (make the reward enjoyable),
• reduce impulsiveness when performing,
• reduce the amount of time spent on delays and delays.

Increasing optimism

• "Spiral of Success". Set a few achievable goals for yourself, preferably learning something new, and consistently and persistently achieve them.

  Success in a new business motivates you to succeed in solving most life tasks. The subconscious will tune in to success and the problem of how to get rid of procrastination will approach its resolution.

• "Mental Comparison". Compare two pictures: what you are striving for and a picture of what is on this moment. The incentive will be the understanding that the situation urgently needs to be changed.
• "Victory Victory". Here you need to be infected with optimism from those who have already learned the secret of how to stop putting off life for later. You need to join positive communities, associations, read books and listen to lectures of those who have known the taste of success.

Increasing the value of a task

• "Flow". When you're doing a boring task, make it more difficult to find a bit of interest for yourself. For example, when cutting vegetables for canning, give them an intricate shape. When you come up with weird games and tasks, you will enter a kind of flow state.
• "Searching for Meaning". Find the connection between the task you are doing and what you love by building a logical chain. For example: attending advanced training courses will help you get a category, this will lead to an increase in salary. Extra income will allow you to allocate more funds for your hobby - collecting things that you like to collect.
• Engage in uninteresting business during the period of combat readiness of the body. Use for this a productive period associated with your biorhythms.
• Normalize your diet by giving up starchy foods in favor of vegetables and fruits.
• Do simple exercises, go in for sports.
• Try to clean up your work area. Even if you are a staunch supporter of controlled chaos, disorder subconsciously affects our mood.

Impulsivity under control

Most often, these factors are TV and the Internet, the main enemies of consistent work. You just have to turn them off, the hand does not rise to do it yourself - ask your loved ones for this favor. You can assign yourself a tangible punishment for not completing a particular task and tell about it to someone who can monitor its implementation.

Eat the elephant piece by piece

The deadlines for completing small tasks are noticeably shorter, and this helps to get started on the task, which is often the most difficult. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,” says a Chinese proverb in support of the above. Having completed the first small task, we can assume that the big goal has approached. Then the turn of the second and subsequent stages.

Solving the problem of how to stop, you need to determine which of the components of procrastination in your case needs correction and use useful recommendations.