A New Website. Check! Phew!
Strategies for Managing Tasks You Don’t Enjoy
I am really pleased to be able to share with you my new website. (You’re on it now!)
It was one of those tasks that I knew I had to do, but I was not looking forward to it at all. The writing, decisions, and careful attention to every punctuation mark-- not my cup of tea. I would have liked it magically done, but that’s not how it works. And now sitting on the other side of it, there was no magic, but it also wasn’t as painful a process as I imagined. Why was that?
Here are a few ideas that I found invaluable in this process. It’s stuff we’ve heard before, but it was a good reminder to see how they all connected.
Hire an expert/coach: In this case, I hired a web designer. (Thanks, Jolene!) Not only does she have the technical expertise to create a clearly organized, beautiful site, but she also provided the structure of how we were going to build it step-by-step, and energy to keep me motivated. By taking advantage of others’ expertise, we can get to another level more quickly because we can learn from those who have already traveled this path. It was also much more enjoyable to have someone to work with, to share in the excitement of finding a good photo or layout for a page. I find that having someone to help with an unpleasant task makes it more fun-- or at least less disagreeable.
Break it down into super-manageable chunks: We all know that looking at a project in its entirety can be overwhelming. I knew the long-term goal, but I focused on our weekly meetings and set up 4-5 concrete tasks to do each week. From there, though, I had to break it down even further. As an example, the task to send a list of finalized testimonials was just too big. So I had to mentally break that down further: 1) review testimonials on old website, 2) organize recently received testimonials, 3) ask for three new ones (and then even “send one email”, 4) draft the page, 5) send. But then I still needed to do it, which brings me to what turned out to be my most important strategy.
Eat Your Frog (A.K.A. Do the worst first): You may have heard this idea that if the first thing you do in the morning is eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you. Your frog is your worst task, and you should do it first thing in the morning. By getting it over with, you can avoid that nagging feeling that exists when you’re procrastinating. My personal routine was that the night before I decided what my first task would be, maybe even opening the document I wanted to work on. And in the early morning after yoga, I began without even opening up email or anything else. I worked straight for 50 minutes without leaving my desk. I used Focusmate to help with this structure, which is a great app. By 7 am the worst was behind me and I didn’t need to do any more website-related work for the day. It was a game-changer for this project.
What about you? I’d be interested in learning how you manage unpleasant tasks that must be done.
P.S. If you’re looking for outside support to help you with your commitments, my work as a leadership coach provides support to individuals and organizations that want to fulfill on their growth and development. With Covid, leaders and teams are under enormous pressure right now. Please let me know if you’d like to have a conversation about executive coaching, team development or leadership training.
P.P.S. I am continuing my commitment to a quarterly book study on the topic of race-- please see here for the next one.
Great Link
Eat That Frog- short, catchy overview to the concept. Perhaps useful to share at the beginning of a meeting. (1:28)
Reflection Exercise: Moving from Theory to Action
To support you in taking on an unpleasant task:
Does it really need to be done? Or do all facets need to be done?
If so, do you personally need to do it or can you delegate it or outsource it to someone else?
Who can partner with you?
How can you break it down into milestones and manageable tasks?
With the idea of “Do the worst first”, when can you do this task in the morning? What is your plan?
How will you celebrate once completed?
Quarterly Quote
When you have a great and difficult task, perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself. -Karen Blixen
Book Club and Book Review
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
by Heather McGhee
This eye-opening book walks us through the economic costs of racism, not only for people of color, but for the majority of whites in America, too. McGhee is an expert economist with an engaging writing style who makes a compelling case against the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others, known as the zero-sum paradigm. Using stories and lay-friendly examples, she lays out what it costs all of us as a society- including financial crisis, rising student debt, and a collapsing public infrastructure, and offers a new paradigm of how we can all gain by working together.
Interested in joining me to explore in a Book Study format? See more here. It begins May 25th.