Hand on heart: There are days when nothing goes right, right? Your attention is all over the place - just not where it should be - and your motivation has gone into overdrive. With no drive, you stare at the screen in front of you and put off your tasks. And as the number of to-do's on your list increases, your motivation decreases. Motivation continues to decline. A vicious spiral that needs to be broken. Because that is not efficient.
We all know days like these. There are many reasons for this - often it is simply due to the fact that you have tasks that you don't feel like doing. But as a self-employed person, you can't just ignore annoying tasks. So you need a strategy to get through them easily and with Lightness to get things done. We have found this strategy and present you 5 practical tips in the magazine article. Enjoy reading and happy work!
Maybe you've found yourself waiting for a moment when you're just bursting with motivation and drive. Our tip is: forget it! We like to think that we have to be overly motivated and really keen on a task to get it done. But that's nonsense!
The truth is this: You have to get into action first, because the first step is known to be the hardest. Once you get going, you automatically get more motivation, which in turn creates new actions. So no motivation is no excuse. The trick is to overcome your reluctance for a moment and just start. The rest will come naturally afterwards.
Sometimes tasks feel burdensome because they are so large that they almost overwhelm us. If this feeling sounds familiar, break down seemingly insurmountable tasks into small increments. No matter how big a project is, make it as small as possible.
Because even if you cross just one tiny mini-task off your to-do list, your brain will get a dopamine kick, which is a Happiness generated. And because your body wants to get more of these feelings of happiness, you keep working diligently. Working in stages therefore means tricking yourself or your own unwillingness to work.
The Parkinsonian law states that work can be stretched like a rubber band: And it always stretches to the exact amount of time available to complete the task. Would you like a little example?
If you schedule eight hours to complete a task, then the task will most likely cost you eight hours. If you only schedule four hours for the task, you can probably do it efficiently in four hours without getting significantly worse results.
By the way, this is because you focus more when you have less time. So the next time you're faced with a mountain of annoying tasks, just schedule less time to complete them and see if Parkinson's Law applies to you.
Perfection is a real productivity killer, because the higher your own standards are, the less effective you work. Therefore, ask yourself whether you really always have to go full throttle and deliver a 110 percent perfect result. Especially with tedious tasks, sometimes an almost perfect result is enough. This way you save time and energy that you can use for other tasks and work efficiently.
If tasks seem annoying to you, it may also be because you are simply overwhelmed and don't give yourself enough breaks. Because everyone needs regular downtime to recover, get inspired and become creative. It's not uncommon to find the best solutions when you simply let the actual work rest for a certain period of time. That is efficient.
Our tip: Take a break, get away from it all and then go back to work with renewed energy. You'll see that the tasks suddenly don't seem so annoying anymore and are much easier for you.
