Blocking time

Welcome to today's issue of The Daily Dose of Motivational Medicine. The e-zine of Motivateme: Breaking the Procrastination Habit. http://www.motivateme.info. Have you signed up for your daily dose yet?
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Beating the procrastination habit is hard. We have ingrained patterns of behaviours - some of which we know about and call habits, some of them don't register on our consciousness scale, but they are there anyway.
 
We may find ourselves delaying the start of one task by completing another - this is called structured procrastination and means that we do get things done, just not the things that may be sitting in the top one or two spots. Do you ever get to those items? Of course, but not until something else takes its place in the delay basket. And every time we commit to these actions, we reinforce our conscious and non-conscious thought processes that it is ok to put things off.
 
But what happens when you can't delay the start of the item anymore. You've called in sick once or twice, you've created half a dozen appointments that you didn't really to make. You've even tried burying it under a mountain of other stuff, so that you do your tasks "in order", the problem with this is - you can keep shuffling the item to the bottom of the pile. But what happens when the item is "the pile" - do you pick it up and start it straight away?
 
Of course not, there are other delaying tactics we can still use. Do you need to make a phone call or a cup of tea? Do you need to go to the loo to get rid of said beverage accumulation? And then there is always the Internet and Email.
 
We stare blankly at the offending item, wishing it were hometime, but the clock refuses to move. Inspiration that's what we need. Music, words of encouragement and inspiration, anything to kick start our recalcitrant minds. We all have different time wasting techniques, the question is - what are we going to do about said item that is staring at us that refuses to go away?
 
Most time management techniques recommend that you handle a piece of paper only once:
Do it
Delegate it
Dump it
 
And it is true you can get rid of most pieces of paper in this manner - if you want to. And as you know by now, that really is the only way to deal with stubborn problems.
 
What this does not take into consideration is our state of mind at the time. We may feel angst at the thought of tackling the problem, so what can we do then?
 
Well the only technique that i have found that works is this - break the task down into very small time slots. And when I say small, I mean 5 minute blocks. Why five minutes? Well everyone can cope with doing a job they dislike for 5 minutes.
 
Make a single phone call, write a single letter. Write a chapter/report outline. Block time in your calendar or diary and then start the task when the time slot appears. Don't look forward, don't look backwards. Do the item that is directly in front of you and you won't feel quite so overwhelmed by the task.
 
Take time today to go through your dreaded list, and work out what you can do in the next five minutes. Chances are it won't be as bad as you thought, and even if it is you are still five minutes closer to finishing said problem task.
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