Learning how to Actually Start things
One of the many things I've learning about myself is that I struggle to "Start" some tasks, usually its the not-so-fun tasks. Its the tasks I keep putting off, hyping myself up for the big job its going to be, only to finally do The Thing™ and realize it wasn't so bad at all. Sometimes its small like cleaning up my messy shelves, sometimes its bigger and becomes a problem the longer I put it off. One day after struggling to start on one of those bigger important Thing™ I started frantically looking up tips and techniques to get over this hurdle.
I eventually stumbled upon an article (that I've lost the link to) that talked about focusing on doing the first step as soon as possible - the real first step. I was struggling to write some documents at the time, so my first step was getting the rough draft done? Or maybe even brainstorming ideas of what to write? No, that wasn't the real first step.
When I sit down to write documents the first thing I do isn't making a rough draft, or brainstorming, or starting a pomodoro timer, or finding background noise, or referencing my todo list, or any of the countless other things I think I do first.
The first thing I actually do is open the damn text editor.
That was the real first step, that's the thing I needed to do. So if I focus on opening up that program then something in my head clicks, that I've started The Thing™. So that's what I did that day after reading the article, I sat down and just open up the damn text editor... and I got it done. The thing I've been struggling to do all week, got it done that one sitting.
In hindsight it sounds pretty silly, of course the key to starting a task is to actually start. But it works for me and my silly head. The feeling of The Thing™ being bigger than it actually is hasn't gone away, but I can eventually start it.
I've been doing this technique for a couple weeks now and it has been working. Not all of The Things™ I need to do involve opening up a program, so I'm back to the drawing board for those tasks. There's still learning I need to do, but now I got another tool to use whenever I get stuck.
updated: 6 months, 3 weeks ago
>> Reply by email