Moving Away from the All or Nothing Approach

All or Nothing

I've always been an All or Nothing type of gal. I would sink all my time and energy into one project, to the exclusion of most everything else. Much of this was driven by my desire to just get it done. Have it be finished and complete so that I could wrap a fancy bow around it and be able to say "DONE!".

Needless to say that has not always worked well. There are very few things that can be wrapped up neatly and declared to be finished. At least not within a few days or weeks.

Because, the thing is... I would go all or nothing for a while on a project and then get kind of bored with it and be distracted by shiny new projects and turn my attention elsewhere. Even though the project wasn't finished...

I guess you could say I was a sprinter... but a sprinter trying to run a marathon at full sprinting speed. That generally does not end well.

Small Steps Every Day

Lately, I've been trying a new approach. I might have five areas or projects that I am working on. In the past, I would just try and get one project fully (sometimes only mostly) complete before turning my attention to the next. But this time, I am trying my Small Steps approach by working on each project for a little bit each day.

I have decided to try this in one hour chunks of time, more or less. An hour for writing, an hour for helping my partner with a project she is working on, an hour for working on a new book, an hour for chipping away at revamping my other blog site (which just moved to WordPress - ugh!) and an hour for yard work. What with cooking and eating lunch from 11 am to 1 pm (we eat our main meal at lunch), that leads to a relatively full day.

So far it seems to be working quite well. Every day needs some tweaking as there are always other things that impinge on a schedule like that. But I am trying to bend with the stream, go with the flow, and just adjust on the fly. 

Priming the Pump

(Image by David Reed from Pixabay)

The thing that I've discovered is this... If I don't already have the next step in mind for the project, I can get derailed quite quickly.

For example, if I don't know what I am going to do out in the yard, I am totally overwhelmed by the gazillion tasks out there and decide to just keep working on another project. It's the uncertainty thing and trying to make a decision. Yard work is usually in the afternoon and by that time, my decision-making battery is running on empty. But... if I know what my next step is... if I've primed the pump, so to speak... then I have a plan for what I am going to do out there.

We want to plant some radishes in the greenhouse. OK. What do I need to do that? Well, the beds in there need water. So my first step is to dig out the garden hose from the shed and reattach it to the faucet so I can water in the greenhouse. I had a look in the shed the other week and it is in serious need of decluttering and organizing. But... all I need to do is get out the garden hose. That's it. Shed decluttering can come later.

I also know that the truck has a service appointment on Monday. Just an oil change and changing out the winter tires for summer tires. The tires are also in the shed and a bit buried at the moment. So that is definitely going to be a priority for the weekend. But all I need to do is get out the summer tires.

Overcoming Inertia

The other thing that I've noticed is that once I get going, I'm fine. It's just getting over that initial hump of inertia and uncertainty. But, already knowing what I am going to be doing... that lowers the inertial hump quite a bit. As does... starting with Small Steps... just put on my gardening clothes, then my boots and then go outside... All I need to do is find the garden hose. That's it. One step at a time.

And priming the pump doesn't have to take a lot of time. It's as simple as selecting a recipe for tomorrow's lunch and then pulling whatever I need out of the freezer.

Small Steps just make everything easier...