The Secret to Getting Things Done

Help For The Rest of Us

The secret to getting things done…

So the other day my son and I were walking (like we often do.) It’s good exercise and it also gives me a chance to spend some quality time with my son, who I really enjoy hanging out with.

It was a nice day too. Especially for December in sunny Ohio (lol.) But anyways…

…as we were strolling along, my boy (he’s 16) was telling me about this problem he’s been having. The issue was that he would start projects that he really wanted to do…

…only to get distracted by other things a few days later, and never come back to the original project. And that led to a kind of cognitive load, built up in his mind, of projects that he wanted to finish…

…but was never getting around back to them. Stressful and annoying.

I told him the same thing I have told countless clients and the same thing I’ll tell you now:

The secret to getting your projects completed is to keep them moving forward.

And when I told him this, he got quite for a minute and I could tell he was thinking about it.

“Well that’s pretty interesting, Dad but what happens if I’m just kind of tired of working on it?”

“What if I’m not as interested in it and my attention on it wanes?”

“What if I just get too busy and have too much going on to deal with it?”

“How do I keep it moving forward if those things happen?”

I looked at him and laughed.

“Those are great questions, man. I’ll tell you what I do and maybe you can use some of it for what you are trying to do.”

I try to keep things simple personally. SO it starts with my initial truth.

Initial Truth = I want to get this project done.

If that’s still true, then I proceed. If it’s not true anymore then I give myself permission to let it go and scrap it. If I feel like one day it might be true again, I put it on “indefinite hiatus.”

Then the next step and the final step is to move that project forward every single day.

If I’m burned out, then moving that project forward is scheduling a day off away from that project, but that day off counts as moving the project forward, because I addressed the project for that day.

The following day? Maybe I commit to working just 15 minutes on the project, and that’s okay. As long as I keep the project moving forward.

The key is to address that project every day and work towards your goal of advancing it.

Eventually, motivation will kick back in and I will get hungry again to finish this project.

There is a hidden power in streaks. Moving your projects forward every day allows you to capitalize on the power of the streak. And there is no better way to get your projects completed.

Simple advice. But it has worked for me for years. I know it can work for my son, and I bet it can work for YOU too.

Hope that helps.

That’s all I got!

Kam