Does the phrase sound familiar to you: “I don't know how I manage, but in the end everything always comes together for the last moment”? Or do you find yourself many times saying "I leave this for tomorrow", and the next day you don't do it either, and the day you have no choice but to do it, comes last minute stress? Because I am sure that you are used to facing difficult things, and you are even surprised at the amount of tasks that you have done in a minimum time with a good result; Let's say it has been a constant all your life. And despite this,! If you want some very basic tricks that WORK so this doesn't happen to you anymore, read this post carefully.
This weekend, I was at the inauguration of a giant factory ship. A very interesting business project that has cost many years of development and also a large investment. Among the guests, we were few Spaniards, and many Icelanders. In one of the conversations we had in English, as a joke, a person said a single word in Spanish: "tomorrow." And it is that although we do not identify with the topics, in some forums, Latinos have a reputation for taking things easy and postponing them more than necessary.
The truth is that around the world, regardless of nationality, there is a tendency to "procrastinate", or postpone difficult tasks. The proof is that in the literature on business strategy, of which there is much in English, they recognize it as an evil to avoid in order to increase effectiveness.
With this memory in mind, today I found that in my schedule I had a task that was difficult for me, and while other times I put myself with it, and I do my best to do it well and soon, this time, I resisted. As he did not feel a sense of urgency, nor of a compelling need for the result, he was already "putting it off for tomorrow." It is not possible that the forecasts of my interlocutor were true! ”, I have said to myself. So I have gotten to work with the recipe that I tell you below and I have done what I tell you below.
I think that in today's society, we are all very used to working under pressure. These are behaviors that I have seen in many clients and in myself: we are required, or we demand so much, that our work accumulates and we establish this way of acting as a habit. Without realizing it, we put things off until the last minute, which means working with stress on a regular basis. In many cases it is because we have gotten used to it, because we tend to postpone and unconsciously take for granted that we will not be able to achieve the same effectiveness without feeling that stress. As it is not urgent and it is difficult, the inertia is to postpone it, until there is no choice but to do so. We are calm in restlessness, and we are used to the chemistry that is generated with stress, which although it is not comfortable at all,It is what we recognize as habitual. So I'm going to give you some guidelines that I use, and that I have learned from the best mentors, to achieve the same effectiveness, without feeling that sense of urgency or overwhelm. If from now on, you decide to always do it like this, I assure you that your quality of life will improve substantially.
Moreover, it is a real luxury, to achieve the same results as always, which have been very satisfactory most of the time, (I'm sure of it) with the difference that now you also enjoy the process.
- Plan ahead in your agenda, with a cool head, how you would like to do things, giving reasonable time for it, with a small margin. I recommend that you put first what costs you the most, the most difficult task, the most important. Also write down how you are going to celebrate it when you have finished it. At night, before going to bed, go over the agenda and notice that difficult task or tasks that you are going to do the next day. While we sleep, our mind works and prepares itself for what we are going to do when we wake up. The next day, when the time comes, get to it without thinking, at the times you have stipulated. It is “forbidden” to start doing other things, even if others are very insistent. When you have finished, celebrate it as you had planned. Although others do not congratulate us on our achievements,it is much more important that we congratulate ourselves. Repeat it several days in a row. Establishing a habit takes practice.
The benefits of doing things this way are felt from the first moment, as you will feel a sense of enthusiasm, satisfaction, and motivation and you will realize that it was much easier than what you had imagined. If you get used to this feeling with repetition, from now on, this feeling of security and confidence will be the usual one. It is the chemistry of wonderful life as a consequence of being at peace with yourself. Trust me: practice this ad nauseam. It is a habit of highly efficient people!
