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For the past hour I have been lying on my couch doing nothing. However, this is not because I lack things to do; I have plenty of things I need to get done today, but for the longest time I just couldn’t bring myself to start any of them. If I’m being honest, none of the tasks I have to do are particularly difficult, but I think the hardest part of any task or chore is the act of starting it.
Last week I talked about a pile of boxes I had in my apartment from some furniture I ordered. The part I left out, though, is that the pile I was talking about was actually one of two piles in my apartment. The pile I referenced last week was in my living room, so if I wanted to sit on the couch those boxes had to go. The other pile of boxes, however, filled a room I didn’t use yet, so they sat there for about two weeks before I took them to the dumpster. Every day I saw the boxes in this other room and thought, “I need to throw those away," and every day I didn’t do it. The task seemed so daunting and it was easier just to put it off. Another task I’ve been putting off is calling my WiFi provider to fix a billing problem - it’s been on my list for two weeks and I still haven’t done it. Neither of these things are difficult tasks (not desirable, but not hard), and they still took me weeks to complete. The thing I’ve realized recently is the second I start doing a task, it almost instantly becomes less daunting. The second I picked up the first box in the pile or dialed the phone, the task instantly seemed easier to accomplish.
Years ago, someone told me that if I was struggling to start something, I should set a timer for 5 minutes and just commit to doing the task for 5 minutes. Thinking about doing something for 5 minutes is more doable and less intimidating than thinking about doing the entire task, and by setting a timer for those 5 minutes, you have overcome the barrier of starting. At the end of those 5 minutes, I feel much more empowered to keep going and typically end up finishing the entire task. I’ve used this method for all sorts of things over the last few years from school work to random chores and I think it really works.
So that is my challenge to you this week: just start a task you’ve been putting off for too long. It is human nature to make things seem harder than they are and to avoid things we don’t necessarily like to do. But once you start the task, everything seems much more doable. And when you finish the task, it feels like you’re on top of the world!
Stay Motivated,
-Dan
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