I just dread doing my taxes every year. I’m very organized, so I have all the records and receipts, but there is something about taxes that makes me loathe the process.
This year, I vowed to get it finished early to avoid having to dread it for an extra month or two. My motto was to just do it and get it off my plate, rather than thinking about how much I hate it, so yesterday I started.
And what do you know, I finished it yesterday, too.
Once I got into it, everything was there, and it was just a matter of making a few piles and a few calculations, and I was done. Saved from two extra months of guilt every time I saw it on my to-do list.
It’s not just taxes that are like this. Most projects are less arduous than the mental build-up and energy it takes to avoid them. If you have something you are putting off, merely commit to starting. Chances are good that once you get into it, the finish line will be closer than you imagined.
In a small town about an hour’s drive from major big-box retailers, an entrepreneur recognized a gap in the availability of pet supplies. The city probably couldn’t support a full store, so she opened a retail space in a permanent trailer that offers residents an ample selection of food, toys, and accessories. Judging by the traffic when we were there, the idea is a hit.
It’s a reminder that there is a large space between all or nothing. You can make progress in small increments, testing out a concept before you go all in, or by offering a reduced version of the grandiose plan. The key is to try something and refine from there.
The dogs of Three Oaks are very glad the trailer is there. What audience is waiting for you to take the next step?
A friend sent me the following advice that he learned at a conference, and it has been on my mind since I read it.
“What’s the first thing you look at when you get to your office? If it is…
Email, then other people are driving your day.
To Do List, then you are driving your day.
Vision Statement (or something that is a reminder of your vision), then your vision is driving your day.”
I know I am guilty of looking at my email on my phone before even entering the office, and right after that, I am checking my calendar (often driven by others as well). Mark Moore’s simple framework has me considering the cadence of my morning — or ending the evening before. What’s most important for me, rather than what others would have me do?
Maybe his taxonomy can reorder the start of your day as well.
Thanks, Brian!
Source: Mark Moore at the Solomon Foundation Pastor’s Conference
Last weekend, I was able to watch my nephew play volleyball. This is just the second year the high school has sponsored a men’s volleyball team, and it showed. The scores were lopsided, and the matches weren’t fun to watch.
I’ll bet the guys would have been more comfortable sleeping in, yet there they were — a full roster of young athletes who had to be at the bus at 8am on a Saturday after playing on three other nights earlier in the week. My nephew even joined the swim team to stay in shape during the off-season. I admire their dedication.
It would be easy to quit after a disappointing season, but they have made a commitment and are working to improve every game. They can execute the fundamentals and are working on the strategy and finesse! Hopefully, it will be even more fun by senior year when all their efforts pay off and they can appreciate what they have built.
It’s never easy starting something, as you’re bound to look bad. But if you only do things you’re good at, you’re missing out on many of life’s adventures. Let the volleyball men serve you a lesson to focus on the potential, not the moment, and become a novice at something you might love.
When you’re a start-up or beginning a new project, it’s analogous to making a quilt.
There are different ways to approach the work. In one scenario, you buy all the fabric and backing, cut out all the squares, set up your sewing area, and spend your time getting everything all ready to go. In another scenario, once you have the vision and the initial supplies, you begin sewing. At the end of the same increment of time, one person will have things all laid out, but the second person will have the initial rows of a sewn quilt. This allows others to see the results and get a tangible sense of what the vision will look like when it’s realized.
If you’re at the beginning stage of something new, it’s so tempting to spend all your efforts getting things in place. A more fruitful option may be to focus on one output that is important and make it visible as soon as possible. The process to get there may be messier than with the first person, but never underestimate the power of short-term results.
I’m one of those people who first reads the Acknowledgements pages of a book. Somehow, it gives me context for the writing to come and helps me appreciate all the effort that went into publishing the words I hold in my hand.
In The Tuesday Murder Club, I received a piece of advice along with the back story. Author Richard Osman wrote that his friend always reminded him to “get it done, then get it good.” Of course, it’s a brilliant mantra for writing, but I believe it applies to most work we do. We procrastinate while seeking perfection, make the task seem too daunting to start, or stop prematurely when we get stuck.
I have written before that the main lesson that has stuck with me since college is that “writing is different than editing” (dot #48). It’s the same premise. Get it all on the page, then fine-tune it.
No matter how you say it, the advice is the same. Just start.
Source: Lucy Prebble as quoted in The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, 2020.
My sister just returned from a three-week cruise where she traveled without a companion. Fortunately for her, Norwegian took steps to ensure that she was not alone. Every night, the crew hosted a “solo travelers meet-up” with an activity (trivia, bingo, etc.), conveniently timed from 5-5:30 pm. This gathered the group and made it easy for some of them to go to dinner together and then follow dinner by sitting together at the entertainment. All this togetherness carried over to create initial friendships, where “solos” connected via social media, shared tips and research about port stops, went on excursions together, and even had their formal photo-on-the-steps taken as a group. “It made the trip,” she said, which is good not only for her but for Norwegian in attracting the growing solo traveler market.
Many organizations take care to onboard new individuals when they first start their employment but I wonder if they couldn’t go further and take a lesson from Norwegian and take steps to bring the “newbies” together. New employees are like solo travelers — they have yet to make connections in the organization and must navigate most things on their own. Beyond pairing the new employee with a buddy, could larger organizations hold the equivalent of “solo traveler meet-ups” once a week or once a month, conveniently timed before the lunch hour or before an all-hands-on-deck meeting, encouraging those who are new to bond with others in their situation, even if they are from different departments?
When I was on campus, we informally held a similar “New Kids” lunch once a month where new employees shared things they had learned beyond what was covered in orientation — policies, norms, and perks. It helped immensely in connecting us to the organization and each other.
Think about what you can do for your “solos.” It’s in everyone’s interest to make for smooth sailing.
We often jump right into a new, big project without forethought as to what will be required. It could involve rearranging priorities to secure time. It may necessitate recruiting a team to help, or maybe it consists of understanding the project’s parameters and budget.
In the case of the postcards I wrote about yesterday (dot #4370), it involved ordering pens. Ultimately, I used 36 pens to complete my writing. I thought I had enough with two new boxes but learned that was insufficient, and had to scramble to order more.
A few thoughts from this:
You’ll always need infrastructure to support your work. It’s a neglected piece of the planning — figuring out what your resource needs are, acquiring them, and perhaps, adjusting your requirements and procuring them again. It all takes time.
When working on a big project, it helps to have tangible evidence that you’re making progress. I saved my empty pen refills so that I could recycle them (a great program at Staples) but got a bonus boost of dopamine as I saw how many were accumulating.
Conversely, if you had laid out 36 pens and told me I needed to write until all of them were empty, it would have been a huge de-motivator. Sometimes, the focus on incremental next steps is required.
We all work on projects — whether figuring out what to make for dinner, planning a national convention, or somewhere in between. Approach your work intentionally to maximize your output and minimize your stress.
Over the summer, I handwrote 5400 postcards that will be mailed in October to encourage voting. This wasn’t the type of task you could do in an evening, a weekend, or even a week. It took me about 200 hours over three months to write them all.
Three things helped me to accomplish this task:
The names were provided on sheets with 25 names, requiring about an hour to write. It broke the task into manageable pieces and allowed me an instantaneous tally of how far along I was in the project.
I knew I wanted them finished by Labor Day, so it was easy to determine how many pages I needed to write each day. I had clear benchmarks as to whether or not I was on track and could make adjustments accordingly.
I created a system where (on most days) I wrote for an hour in the morning and another in the evening, making writing a part of my daily routine. It wasn’t left to happenstance when/whether I would write.
I’m now engaged in another large project and I bring these lessons forward to help me accomplish it. It’s much more nebulous than the postcards, and I have to do the equivalent of creating the names rather than being handed them, but I know I need to create measurable targets, a benchmark, and a system.
Instead of instantly jumping into your next assignment, take a moment to consider the strategies above. Having a game plan may be just what you need to win the game.
What tasks out there are worse thinking about vs. actually doing? I think about how I put off gathering my tax receipts and doing taxes — but once I start, it never is as bad as I remembered it to be. Drinking bottles of “chalk” always makes the anticipation of certain medical tests worse than the procedure itself. The finger prick before giving blood often hurts more than the actual donation. Studying for the DMV license test and waiting in the endless line is usually more aggravating than taking the actual examination. Getting bundled up to go for a walk in the winter always feels like more work than the walk itself. And thinking about what I should write about as a blog is much more demanding than the actual writing! I still feel clueless until I sit down and open the program, and then words magically appear. Intellectually, I know all this. But I still allow the procrastination and angst to eat up more energy than it should. I need to move my “butt to seat” (see #124) more quickly so I can remove my butt from seat more quickly too! Resolve today to spend less time dreading and more time doing!
Originally published in modified form on December 1, 2012
