Organize IT

Last week I wrote about the ‘Someday’ disease. It’s the syndrome that runs rampant in modern society. Millions of people put off their lives, goals and dreams all the time, saying they will do it someday. But when exactly? When conditions are perfect? When you  have enough experience and knowledge? In that previous post I discussed how those beliefs are little more than excuses. Conditions are never perfect so why not start now and correct course as you go along?

As I just said, this syndrome is rife in the modern world, because the way we live our lives and  the way society functions – from business practices to what our kids are taught at school – makes our exposure to ‘Someday’ disease a certainty. However, I believe there are ways to combat it. In the same way washing your hands regularly can stop you catching colds, the following five practices can stop you becoming infected by ‘Someday’ disease.

• Capture your thoughts
  Anything that involves substantial time or effort invariably needs planning, preparation and a clear head dedicated to thinking about it. That means you need to free your mind up from the burden of remembering stuff and capture those thoughts onto something external, like a notepad or onto your PC. A general doesn’t plan tactics and strategies in his head, he uses a tactical display. Likewise, a teacher doesn’t keep his lessons in his head, he uses presentations, notes and whiteboards.
• Break it down
  This is a crucial step. Society is no longer geared towards a get-up-and-go mentality. Nowadays, it seems like everything requires copious amounts of tedious paperwork and planning, and numerous chores in order to get any real work done. With all confusion it’s no wonder people procrastinate. Something like traveling around Europe or even learning to snowboard poses numerous challenges. The best way to overcome that complexity and confusion is to break it down into bitesize chunks of activity.
• Decide what really matters
  It’s time to be realistic and admit you can’t do everything. But if you really question yourself, you’d probably admit half of those things you say you want do are just pipe dreams or nice sounding ideas anyway. Many people would say they want to learn a new language, go traveling around Australian or learn to play the piano but how genuinely motivated are you to do something about it? What really matters to you? What do you really want to do? Don’t spread yourself thin. Identify the vital few that matter and forget about the rest – they will only serve to distract you.
• Apply Parkinson’s law
  Time management as we know it only serves to feed the ‘Someday’ disease, as discussed in a previous post. Instead, forget what you know about managing your time and apply Parkinson’s law. Work expands to fill the time available to it, as does our perception of the work. The more time you give something, the more of it you are likely to waste it and leave something till someday in the future. As stressful as the prospect of being tight with your time and even tighter with deadlines might seem, it is a very powerful way to spur yourself into action.
• Overcome that first hurdle
  Momentum. We all need it to get things done, but we vastly underestimate quite how much it’s required. The hardest part of any project is often the very beginning when you have no momentum to take those first few steps. Like driving a car, once you’ve got moving and out of first gear, the journey becomes considerably easier. So, be aware of that first hurdle and put extra focus into clearing it. Things will become much easier from then on.

Related reading

• ‘Someday’ Is A Disease, Do You Suffer From It?
• Best Of Organize IT: November 2009, Plus Feedback Wanted
• GTD Dictionary: Someday/Maybe
• Best Of Organize IT: Year In Review 2009
• Someday/Maybe And 101 In 1001