The 3 Biggest Enemies of Getting Your Important Work Done

Key points

1. The first “enemy” is that you don’t have enough clarity on the task. You don’t know how long it will take you, or you haven’t figured out the necessary pre-work. Pamela Wilson’s Copyblogger post below is a great example of how to keep that clarity of pre-work vs.work
2. The second enemy is you just don’t feel like it. You make a plan with great intentions … but then lack the emotional or mental energy to actually do the task when the time comes. If this comes up a lot for you, make sure you’re getting enough sleep! And if that’s not the culprit, look at creating a more robust habit for yourself. We’ll talk lots more about that in an upcoming session, but for now, schedule your task for one of our coworking sessions if you can.
3. The third (and most powerful) enemy is that you have associated this task with underlying anxiety. To become more conscious of that anxiety, and start to diffuse it, consider some practices from ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). Sonia walks you through one of those techniques in Part 3 of the recording.

Resources

• Pamela Wilson’s Copyblogger post (a great example of dividing a big task into multiple preparation steps, and scheduling them independently). A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Content a Week.
• If your sleep isn’t great (whether that’s recent or a long-time issue for you), Sleep School has some new modalities that you may find extremely helpful. The lessons are delivered by a low-cost subscription app.
• If you want to create a more robust set of work (and personal) habits, I found Stephen Guise’s newish book Elastic Habits to be one of the best “small habit” resources. We’ll be working with this general approach to habits as we move forward. I recommend picking the book up!
• There are lots of good general references on using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques on your own, without a professional therapist. The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris is a great starting point. Of course, do seek a therapist out if you feel you would benefit!