This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Overcoming Procrastination -- In my recent exploration into personal productivity as a component of organizational productivity, I've come across Steve Pavlina's Blog and site in the GTD community. He offers a paper on Overcoming Procrastination, which offers up five strategies for getting around to it...
- Replace "Have To" With "Want To" - Replace "Finish It" With "Begin It" - Replace Perfectionism With Permission To Be Human - Replace Deprivation With Guaranteed Fun - Use Timeboxing
I was surprised that the second item resonated with me, since my abhorrence of multi-tasking might suggest that once you start something, you should finish it. To the extent that you can work through a project straight through, you certainly should, but setting that up as a prerequisite for getting it started could turn it into the situation of facing a daunting effort that leads you to avoid even starting. We're not talking here about the formality of project tasks, but about all the other "stuff" that needs to get done as well. Getting started can simply mean chipping away at the big boulder bit by bit until you've got a pile of completed gravel.
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