Busy does not equal productive

Dano Ori wrote: Thanks for posting this Manu.

Thank YOU! I like the perspective of quadrant 4 being necessary (balance and all that).

That TED Talk sounds interesting, any chance you could repost it here?

Okay, after searching TED for a while I realised that I actually watched it on YouTube.

Here's the link to the video I mentioned.

Mel Robbins is the speaker and she has a number of very interesting videos on the subject of motivation and the psychology behind it.

Dano Ori wrote:

Goken wrote: New thought. Would it be more helpful to make that a graph where things can be in different places within each quadrant or is simply putting them in one of the four good enough?

Putting them in one of the four should be sufficient. While being more detailed than that can be useful if you have a lot of items on your plate, you need to guard against devoting yourself to organising and prioritising rather than achieving. The aim of this tool is to direct you to those tasks which most effectively occupy your time, but if you spend that time categorising you won't complete any of them.

That makes perfect sense. This is meant to be a tool for simplification and I'm complicating it. :laugh:

Dano Ori wrote: Okay, after searching TED for a while I realised that I actually watched it on YouTube.

Here's the link to the video I mentioned.

Warning: Spoiler!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFu_58AnT0g

Mel Robbins is the speaker and she has a number of very interesting videos on the subject of motivation and the psychology behind it.

That's an interesting take on procrastination. if you've used the method yourself, how useful has it been?

Akkarin wrote: If you've used the method yourself, how useful has it been?

As someone who has had a habit of wearing out the snooze button every day, I've used the 5-4-3-2-1 method she describes to switch off that self-talk that tells me it's okay to sleep in just a little bit longer, and instead focus on decisions I made before going to sleep - such as getting up when my alarm goes off and going for a run. Before seeing her videos it wasn't uncommon for me to think of a half-dozen [strike]reasons[/strike] excuses for skipping it and staying in bed a little longer. Now it's uncommon for me to miss one.

I also find the method of not focusing on the task ahead, but simply focusing on the first step, or the first five minutes, to be successful more often than not. Journey's of 1000 miles and all that.

When I procrastinate, I convince myself that I don't want to do something. When I promise myself that I'm only going to do five minutes, or one ToDo item, and then stop and do something 'fun' I do find that I get 'in the zone' and just power through the task at hand. I think it's because, having given myself permission to stop and do something else, I no longer feel the need to rebel against what I should be doing - I've already decided it's okay to stop. It's also an issue of balance - scheduling time to be unproductive as the natural counterpoint to being highly productive.

The self-forgiveness part is really just a matter of focusing on the solution, not on the problem. You need to accept that the problem exists, but then find a way not to worry about it and instead commit to one small thing that gets you closer to the solution, then the next, until there's no problem anymore.

Dano Ori wrote: I also find the method of not focusing on the task ahead, but simply focusing on the first step, or the first five minutes, to be successful more often than not. Journey's of 1000 miles and all that.

The most difficult thing is getting started. I've found that once I overcome that initial inertia, momentum works in my favor.

I really got a lot from this discussion, this is a gratuitous bump!