Yesterday when I opened up AWeber to send you this message, it turns out the site was down. Like really down.
I took that as a very clear sign to spend the
afternoon at the beach. I did my first open water swim (it lasted about 15 minutes and I discovered I'm very out of shape and I'm more afraid of seaweed than I thought) and got started on a new book. It was glorious.
But it turns out that I woke up sick today, so maybe I should have done the giant list of things I wanted to do instead of putting them off. Oh well. No regrets.
What I had planned on writing to you about were some of the ah has from last month's group call in The Happy Squirrel Collective all about PROCRASTINATION.
Our conversation was rich and nuanced, but here are a few of the tips and ideas the group came up with to work with procrastination:
Make sure the task is really a task. For example, “collect testimonials” is more like a project. Smaller tasks like “Identify 2-3 people who I can ask for testimonials” is much easier to do and
check off.
Make sure the task on the list can be completed in 30 minutes
Have a “do not do” list
Stop using to-do lists like a “remember to do” list to catch all thoughts. Keep things you want to remember in a separate spot and save the to-do list
for actionable tasks
Vet everything on the to-do list and notice how it got there. Ask what makes the task worth doing in the first place.
Can have themed days for tasks. E.g. content creation days, admin days. Know what you want to have happen on those days
Check your energy and decide what the minimum you need to do in a day is. Just get those things done if it’s a bad day. If it’s a great day, you can do a lot more.
If I know the tasks will create many other tasks (for example, creating a course), and I know it will overload me, it’s likely I’ll procrastinate the task/project. Could reframe this into “how will this nourish
me?”
The biggest ah ha for me was using a to-do list like a "remember to do" list.
We have lots of calls in the calendar and some pretty amazing business owners in the group. If you're curious if it's a
fit for you or not, just reply to this email and ask away.
