Mario Andretti
SUMMARY OF TODAY'S MESSAGE:
Here's a surefire way to get going on those big jobs that overwhelm you. Don't try to get them right or perfect in the beginning. Just get them started. Force yourself to do at least 15 minutes a day. In a few days, you'll break through the psychological barrier that's been scaring you. After that, it will be smooth sailing.
* * * * *
When you agreed to do it, it seemed like a wonderful challenge. Now, your deadline is fast approaching and you haven't even started. Getting the job done is a priority, yet it somehow doesn't happen. Instead, it stays there on your daily task list - highlighted for attention but never attended to.
What causes this pernicious process? Why does a great opportunity turn into a very big chore that turns into an overwhelming enigma that threatens to turn into the Big Job You Never Even Started?
There are all sorts of causes -- but only one solution that consistently works for me. Here it is:
1. If you have been stuck for more than three days, you are stuck. Admit it. Stand in front of the mirror and repeat: "I shot my mouth off. I'm stuck." You have been waiting for inspiration to save you, but it hasn't appeared. Stop waiting.
2. Change the status of the job: It was one priority among many. Make it No.1 on your daily task list.
3. Don't even think of attacking the whole mess at once. Instead, break it up into small pieces. If it's a 40-page report you have to write, break it up into pages. If it's a bunch of people you have to talk to, think of each conversation as a separate task.
4. Working back from your deadline, figure how many discrete units (pages, people, etc.) you need to do each day. Then, figure out how long it will take you to do that many units.
5. If each unit can be done in less than 15 minutes, you are in luck. Give yourself the job of doing just one 15-minute task each day. If you will have to spend more than 15 minutes a day to finish, then begin -- still -- with 15 minutes and gradually increase your daily time commitment as you get rolling.
6. Start with 15 minutes. Start immediately. Do your 15 minutes even if you feel that what you are doing is not very good.
7. Keep going until you break through the psychological barrier you've been up against.
The secret here is to reduce each day's work to 15 minutes.
It is such a small amount of time that you won't have any trouble doing it.
This will get the ball rolling, even if it doesn't seem to be rolling in the
right direction. Sooner or later -- and this is guaranteed -- you will suddenly
get that inspiration you had been waiting for while you were stuck. And when it
happens, --you will find that you've already
done a good deal of the grunt work (thinking, planning, research, whatever).
My brother, JJF, recommended this technique several years ago. He's used it to get big writing projects done. I've used it for writing, planning, research, and especially critiquing. It has never failed me.
It's particularly useful when you get to the point where you don't actually like a project anymore. In that case, unless you have the discipline to hack away at it every day, you will avoid it, and it will never get done.
Some days, you will want to work more than 15 minutes. That's fine. In fact, that's the idea. It means your creative mind is starting to kick in. One day -- and this can happen at almost any time -- you'll suddenly see the big picture and will be able to get the whole project done right. You may decide to scrap some of what you've been doing and change some of it -- but from that point on, you'll work fast and easily because you'll know exactly what needs to be done.
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You are having a problem with a member of your team. It's affecting everybody. Your instinct is to call a meeting and give a speech that addresses the problem. You won't mention names or point fingers. You figure the message will get through.
It will, but maybe not to the person who needs it most. He'll realize that it's "about him" and (a) freeze up from embarrassment or (b) freeze up from resentment.
It's much better to solve these individual problems personally. Have a one-on-one meeting. Or write him a personal memo. If necessary, make two or three attempts. After three attempts, if you don't have a significantly positive response, you will probably have to get rid of him.
* * * * *
Like the lover whose warts suddenly emerge after the infatuation ends, Rome seems messier and noisier now than she did when I got here. And the way those damn motor scooters race up behind me on narrow streets is getting more and more annoying.
Still, I am not down-rating her. She's still my favorite city. Let's put it the way my children would: I still love Rome as much. I'm just not so much in love.
The net emotion: I'm amenable to coming home. Even looking forward to it.
* * * * *
In thousands of years of human history, much has changed -- but not the human psyche. Marcus Aurelius had these words to say about stress and sadness: "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to the view you have of that thing. How you view anything is a power you can revoke at any moment."
When you are overwhelmed, it doesn't feel as if you can "revoke" it. You don't feel that you have any power at all. But the fact is that you do. Who else has power over the way you feel? Who else can control your feelings?
Marcus Aurelius was right then, and he's just as right today.
Recognize -- even when you are frustrated and out of mental fuel -- that you still have the power. Take a long walk. Calm yourself. Figure out one small step you can take that will point you back in the right direction. Take that step.
* * * * *
WORD TO THE WISE: CACHE/CACHET
Here are two related words that are often confused. "Cache" (derived from modern French) means a secret hiding place or something one keeps in hiding. It should be pronounced as the French pronounce it -- kah-SHAY -- but there are several dictionaries that allow for (or even recommend) CASH.
"Cachet" (also pronounced kah-SHAY) means a symbol, insignia, mark, or quality that indicates privilege or importance. It's from the Old French word cacher (to hide). You might say that a person's clothing or jewelry or even his posture gives him "a certain cachet."
MMF
Copyright Early to Rise, 2001
TOMORROW
* What you can learn from Garrison Keillor
* The importance of deadlines
* Living Rich: Fake It Till You Make It -- Why the Baroque is so baroque
* It's Good to Know: In Classic Mythology -- Uranus
* Word to the Wise: Ephemeral