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Stop dicking around and get on with it!

Productivity /

So this is an apposite post given my last blog entry was nearly three months ago. My post-summer burst of motivation was real, and I channelled it into doing ‘stuff’, but with hindsight, I dropped the ball on this writing gig. Many books have been written by far smarter and more qualified individuals than me on the subject of procrastination – mostly for lazy people who are content with their shitty middle-management job or, at the other end of the spectrum, the kind of person who drops their kids off whilst still in their pyjamas.

I’m not either of those stereotypes. A lack of drive has never been my problem. It’s where I focus that energy and what the outcomes of it are that make the difference between my activity being defined as either ‘work wonderful’ or ‘work wanking’ (I’ll go into the latter concept in more detail in another post).

Example 1: Categorising 10 years of old electronics and books, photographing them all, posting it on eBay and making £600. If this took me one day, it would be ‘Work Wonderful’. It actually took me a week, hence ‘Work Wanking’.

Example 2: Organise the recording and editing of a friends wedding. Recording it and sending off the footage to someone on Fiverr would have been ‘Work Wonderful’. Self-learning how to edit in Premier Pro and spending three days on it was ‘Work Wanking’.

I don’t regret doing either of the above activities, but the way I went about doing them was pretty dumb. The truth is, the eBay job was a classic example of ‘small achievable tasks’ which satisfied my caveman brain of making progress with minimal challenge. It’s why playing idiotic freemium games like Candy Crush are so popular. Do the thing, get a reward, repeat.

And the video editing job was partially a case of massively underestimating how complex learning a new skill like this would take, combined with “this is a bit fun and creative, and it’s okay, because my friend will be chuffed with the result”. They were, but if I’d spent £40 on a professional freelancer on Fiverr, I would have saved three days and ended up with a better video.

In both cases I failed to evaluate the task properly and prioritise accordingly. I know how to do this shit, I just chose not to. So I’m going to write a guide to Productivity in the next two weeks, with my top tips on how to stop dicking around and do the things that are important to you. Starting with getting dressed and taking the kids to school.

Stop dicking around and get on with it! Read More »

Grabbing the ‘GSD’ wave

Productivity /

I’m feeling oddly motivated. Like that first tingle you get with athlete’s foot. The feeling has been growing slowly in me over the past couple of weeks, moving from proverbial itchy feet to actually doing something about it.

The epiphany that caused this upswell of motivation, came to me whilst bodyboarding off the British coast a few weeks ago. Most of the waves were small and unnoteworthy. When the medium sized ones arrived you had to figure out if they were big enough to propel you all the way to the beach – often they wouldn’t. Occasionally a whopper would arrive, which would guarantee beach-reaching glory but, also threatened failure and a lung full of vomit-inducing seawater. Knowing when to jump with a wave was therefore the key, to having fun, staying put or wiping out.

Being motivated, or, as I like to call it, Getting Shit Done (GSD) is not dissimilar to my bodyboarding experience. The little waves are your Monday mornings. Noticeable, but too regular and uninspiring to do anything other than review your calendar, check your emails and plan your week ahead.

The medium waves are those rarer instances of genuine interest where for a short moment you consider taking action. This might be watching an online TED talk, reading an interesting book, or chatting to an inspirational person. Maybe not enough to actually do anything substantial, but enough to get you a bit excited about what might come soon.

And then the big waves are the ones you can’t ignore. Sure you can give them a miss and you won’t gain or lose anything, but if you hold on tight and take the leap, something in your life will change. These big waves are (for me at least) in September, when the Summer holidays are over and the kids go back to school. It’s also January, when I’m a bit bigger in the belly and lighter in the wallet.

September and January are preceded (hopefully) by some chill-out time, so my energy levels are high, and are moments of change for everyone (a new school term or a new year), so it’s a good time to be reflective of what’s to come. In those two months, I’m really keen to Get Shit Done.

Very occasionally, you’ll be hit by a fucking tsunami.

Turning 40 (or 50, or 60), being made redundant out of the blue or given shitty news from a doctor. How you handle these moments is often shaped by how many waves you’ve jumped on so far. Experience breeds wisdom and confidence.

So this September’s big wave has motivated me to write this blog.

And buy some athlete’s foot cream.

Where will your wave take you?

Grabbing the ‘GSD’ wave Read More »

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