Hey Everyone,
I was just wondering what kind of advice you all have for tackling chores, projects, and all-around activities that you don't want to do. After all, one of the disadvantages of being single is that we don't even have the option of trying to push our most-dreaded chores onto someone else.
(Now of course, everyone, single or married, is welcome to share!)
One of my ever-present goals is to try to work on self-discipline, and I find that reading others' tips and strategies is always helpful.
You don't have to follow this format in answering (feel free to answer any way you want), but I'm going to use this as my example. Top 3 things I have a tendency to put off and how I try to force myself to tackle them promptly:
1. Routine, mundane things like oil changes/maintenance issues, doctor's appointments, grocery and clothes shopping, haircuts, etc. I always tell myself, "I'll do that next week," and the next thing you know, two more months have gone by.
2. Exercise. What can I say: I'd love to be "All About The Bass" ALL the time, but anyone knows that in order to be healthy, you have to work a little Treble in now and then.
3. Miscellaneous projects around the house such as cleaning and organizing, which I have a love/hate relationship with. I LOVE being organized. I just HATE all the work it takes to get there. For instance, are you someone who tries to figure out all your paperwork at the end of the year? I'm always tempted to do that. But experience has taught me that it's much better to sort things out as they happen, which can take quite a bit of time every week.
Here are some things I do to keep myself on track.
Being someone who is long on writing and short on memory, I write most everything down. My best friend is a 12-month calendar that is further broken down into weeks and days, along with a checklist of things I hope to accomplish each month. Planning usually isn't my problem. My challenge lies in sticking to the plan. Here's how I try:
1. If I have a day off, I almost always get up early and try ("try" being the operative word) to do some of the things that I know won't get done unless I do them RIGHT away. This includes exercise (I break up time on the elliptical trainer into 10-minute segments and try, once again TRY being the key word here, to do pushups or other exercises in between), Bible reading (sometimes done while ON the elliptical trainer), and forcing myself to work on a creative hobby for 30 minutes or else I know I'll never sneak it in.
2. I break down tasks into smaller pieces and if I can only tackle them one piece at a time, I still see it as an accomplishment. For example, if I have 3 piles of paperwork stacked up, I'll tell myself I'll do one pile now, one when I get home from work, and one the next day. If getting through an entire stack is too much at once, I'll try to at least tackle 3 things within the stack. It doesn't always go that way but I try to at least map out a plan.
3. I continue to write EVERYTHING down throughout the week so that I won't forget and make myself daily schedules. At the end of the day, I take 5 minutes to cross out what I did today and plan another 3 or more things for tomorrow. I make a goal of trying to get 3 things accomplished per day, even if each thing is just a broken-down segment of a larger project. I also find it helpful to give myself a time grid. For example, I assign 20-60 minute blocks to each project, depending on my amount of time, so that if I at least put in the amount of allotted time, I can feel like I've accomplished something, even if the entire project isn't finished. If I'm at home, I will also set the microwave timer for the assigned time periods because it helps me keep a steady pace and focused on moving forward.
A typical workday schedule I write for myself (with 3 hours free) might look like this:
Monday: 4-7 (broken into 6/30-minute time segments)
1. make 2 appointments
2. workout
3. Bible reading
4. sorting receipts
5. answering email
6. junk mail & dishes
Now as I said, things usually don't work out as neatly as I've scheduled them. Today I managed to only get 2 things done because they took longer than I had thought. I also have a tendency to fall into something "easy" (today it was watching travel shows when I got home from work), so for me, stopping a time-draining activity and actually STARTING is always the hardest part. The bad news is, I didn't get much done today. The good news is, I went to Europe and learned how to blanch brussel sprouts!
What are YOUR tips for pulling yourself away from the time sucks and motivating yourself to get things done?
God willing... there is always tomorrow. And I realize that anyone with small children or 90-hour work week is going to laugh at the very thought of trying to plan things out the way I've tried to illustrate (my utmost respect to all you busy people!!!)
But this is the very reason why I'm writing this thread--who better to ask how to get things accomplished than other extremely busy people?
I was just wondering what kind of advice you all have for tackling chores, projects, and all-around activities that you don't want to do. After all, one of the disadvantages of being single is that we don't even have the option of trying to push our most-dreaded chores onto someone else.
(Now of course, everyone, single or married, is welcome to share!) One of my ever-present goals is to try to work on self-discipline, and I find that reading others' tips and strategies is always helpful.
You don't have to follow this format in answering (feel free to answer any way you want), but I'm going to use this as my example. Top 3 things I have a tendency to put off and how I try to force myself to tackle them promptly:
1. Routine, mundane things like oil changes/maintenance issues, doctor's appointments, grocery and clothes shopping, haircuts, etc. I always tell myself, "I'll do that next week," and the next thing you know, two more months have gone by.
2. Exercise. What can I say: I'd love to be "All About The Bass" ALL the time, but anyone knows that in order to be healthy, you have to work a little Treble in now and then.
3. Miscellaneous projects around the house such as cleaning and organizing, which I have a love/hate relationship with. I LOVE being organized. I just HATE all the work it takes to get there. For instance, are you someone who tries to figure out all your paperwork at the end of the year? I'm always tempted to do that. But experience has taught me that it's much better to sort things out as they happen, which can take quite a bit of time every week.
Here are some things I do to keep myself on track.
Being someone who is long on writing and short on memory
, I write most everything down. My best friend is a 12-month calendar that is further broken down into weeks and days, along with a checklist of things I hope to accomplish each month. Planning usually isn't my problem. My challenge lies in sticking to the plan. Here's how I try: 1. If I have a day off, I almost always get up early and try ("try" being the operative word) to do some of the things that I know won't get done unless I do them RIGHT away. This includes exercise (I break up time on the elliptical trainer into 10-minute segments and try, once again TRY being the key word here, to do pushups or other exercises in between), Bible reading (sometimes done while ON the elliptical trainer), and forcing myself to work on a creative hobby for 30 minutes or else I know I'll never sneak it in.
2. I break down tasks into smaller pieces and if I can only tackle them one piece at a time, I still see it as an accomplishment. For example, if I have 3 piles of paperwork stacked up, I'll tell myself I'll do one pile now, one when I get home from work, and one the next day. If getting through an entire stack is too much at once, I'll try to at least tackle 3 things within the stack. It doesn't always go that way but I try to at least map out a plan.
3. I continue to write EVERYTHING down throughout the week so that I won't forget and make myself daily schedules. At the end of the day, I take 5 minutes to cross out what I did today and plan another 3 or more things for tomorrow. I make a goal of trying to get 3 things accomplished per day, even if each thing is just a broken-down segment of a larger project. I also find it helpful to give myself a time grid. For example, I assign 20-60 minute blocks to each project, depending on my amount of time, so that if I at least put in the amount of allotted time, I can feel like I've accomplished something, even if the entire project isn't finished. If I'm at home, I will also set the microwave timer for the assigned time periods because it helps me keep a steady pace and focused on moving forward.
A typical workday schedule I write for myself (with 3 hours free) might look like this:
Monday: 4-7 (broken into 6/30-minute time segments)
1. make 2 appointments
2. workout
3. Bible reading
4. sorting receipts
5. answering email
6. junk mail & dishes
Now as I said, things usually don't work out as neatly as I've scheduled them. Today I managed to only get 2 things done because they took longer than I had thought. I also have a tendency to fall into something "easy" (today it was watching travel shows when I got home from work), so for me, stopping a time-draining activity and actually STARTING is always the hardest part. The bad news is, I didn't get much done today. The good news is, I went to Europe and learned how to blanch brussel sprouts!
What are YOUR tips for pulling yourself away from the time sucks and motivating yourself to get things done?
God willing... there is always tomorrow. And I realize that anyone with small children or 90-hour work week is going to laugh at the very thought of trying to plan things out the way I've tried to illustrate (my utmost respect to all you busy people!!!)
But this is the very reason why I'm writing this thread--who better to ask how to get things accomplished than other extremely busy people?
