Getting things done
GETTING
THINGS DONE
Mario
D’Couto
The new year has finally come which gives us an
opportunity to look at the past and see how it has gone by and a new future to
seek out new opportunities and possibilities. On the very outset, a happy new
year to you and your family, wherever you are, whichever part of the world you
may be in. Given that we have begun 2020, there may be things you may have
wished you could accomplish but were not able to do and perhaps, with the start
of the new year, you may have set yourself some sort of goal or a resolution
that you may want to achieve.
For a long time, I always thought that the best
resolution is to keep no resolution at all because in as much as most our
aspirations may be noble and worthy, most of us struggle to sustain the energy
level. I have been there too and still struggle with it from time to time.
However, what I’m about to share is some things that have learned in the past
few months which I have put into practice to some extent and have seen the
results and I hope that it may be of some use for you as you begin your journey
for the year 2020.
Time! It’s such a precious commodity but many of us fail
to realize its value until it’s gone. The funny thing about life is we
sometimes don’t realize the value of a particular thing until we don’t have it,
since having it makes us to take it for granted. It’s the common denominator
between the richest man on the planet and the poor beggar on the streets. But
how do we invest it? That’s something we need to ask ourselves.
Given that each of us has the same amount of time, we all
know that it’s a choice on us on how we want to use. The myth of ‘no – time’
is indeed a myth because there is time. It’s only about finding what’s really
important to you and putting your energy into it that makes the difference
which calls for prioritization. When there is something that is important to
you, you will automatically find the time for it. On the other hand, if there
is something that is important for you but you still feel as though there is ‘no
time’, then perhaps either than thing is not really important for you or
you may need to re – think your priorities.
With that being said, another major observation is the
lethargy or a lack of meaning that we may experience from time to time.
Sometimes, at a certain point, we may wonder whether all our efforts is worth
it or sometimes we may just not feel like doing because we don’t feel like
doing. As painful as it is, here’s something that I would like to bring to your
notice.
We all have those moments like we want to give up and not
go ahead. It’s indeed a daunting task in just trying to break the inertia, let
alone trying to gain the skill to accomplish the work that you’re supposed to
do or completing the task. But if you were not to make that initial step, if
you don’t try to break the resistance, you would probably be piling up pending
work over and over again until one day, it becomes this huge gigantic mountain,
you don’t know where to start or where to end. It’s like people failing to pay
back their loans on time which then goes into a debt/collection agency and
things start becoming worse or, a festering wound if not treated on time, would
then require that particular limb or part of the body to be amputated. Sounds
scary, doesn’t it?
However, the good thing is we all have it within our
power to turn things around and I do hope that what I am about to share would
help you take your life to the next level, both humanly and spiritually.
The first thing to be kept in mind as noted earlier is prioritization.
Most of us don’t get things done because we spend time on things that don’t
really matter when we should be using that time to do those things that need
our attention. Once the focus is set, the next thing is ‘following it up’.
In as much as motivational talks and quotes have their place, it would be of no
use if we do not follow up. It is said that a person with average intelligence
with razor – like focus and hard work can achieve much more than the person who
is highly intelligent and skillful but is lazy. If you want to achieve, you’ve
got to act.
The problem is most of us choose to take the easier path,
the path that is less demanding and which does not require our effort. Let’s
face it, we humans are generally ‘wired’ (so to speak) to take the easy
path and while most us would like to believe that we can overcome this tendency
through a pep talk or motivational speech, we cannot overlook it as William
Moore wrote in his book, “On Character and Mental Toughness”, “Never
underestimate the capacity of people to choose the easy way.”
This can be observed where so many companies play on the
minds of customers by offering them cashback. Let’s say the cost of a TV set is
500 dollars and the company ‘promises’ 100 dollars cashback. So in actuality,
the cost of a TV set is 400 dollars. Now here’s the catch. To claim the 100
dollars, there is a form to be filled and submitted and after that, they would
need to wait for several weeks to claim that cashback. It has been found that
out of 100%, only 10% would actually go to the extent of claiming the cashback.
And why? Because most people don’t want to take the hard route of going through
the grind of filling out the form, submitting it and then waiting for several
weeks. In the bargain, it is the companies that are making the profit.
Sometimes to do things that we don’t feel like doing, we
often think that all we need is a good amount of willpower. In a sense,
willpower can be compared to physical strength. For instance, when there is a
huge thing to be lifted, the greater the weight, the greater the level of
resistance and the greater will the strength be required to lift that
particular object. Likewise, the greater the resistance to do something, the
greater will our willpower need to be. But is that the case?
We’ve developed all kinds of tools that make it possible
for us to lift heavy objects – to overcome resistance – with very little
physical strength. For example, if you have a flat tyre, you don’t have to rely
on brute strength to lift your car. With the right tool, a tyre jack, you can
use a very small amount of physical strength to get a very large result. The
trick is in applying you strength in the right way.
Just as you’d be foolish to rely on your physical
strength alone to life a car, you’d be foolish to rely on your willpower alone
to get yourself to do a task that you dread doing. What’s more, beating
yourself up for not having enough will power makes as much sense as beating
yourself up for being too physically weak to lift a car with your bare hands.
The remedy to getting things done is to create situations
that ensure that you do the thing that you’re supposed to do, simply because
you have no other choice. For instance, your smartphone is a distraction. The
best thing to do to ensure you get things done is to place the smartphone in an
inaccessible place. Or if you want to shed a few kilos, to keep your running
shores or exercise gear where you sleep or in a place that you can see as that
can serve as a reminder, as a saying goes, “Out of sight is out of mind.”
There are a lot of examples that can be given but the point is this, a key to
following through is to make it harder to violate your intention and easier to
do and what you intend to do.
Situations that force people to do the
right thing work better than efforts to persuade them to do the
right thing to do. Whenever you can, rely on situations to do the heavy
lifting. Nothing will guarantee follow – through better than a situation that
leaves you feeling as if you have no choice but to do what you intend to do.
There’s a critical difference between a good reason
for doing what you intend to do and a reason you can actually feel.
Although a good reason is enough to decide to follow through, it takes a
compelling reason – a reason you can feel in your gut right now – to actually
follow through. If this compelling reason, the reason you feel in your gut to
do something , is not there, you may as well kiss your ‘to – do’ list goodbye
(if you have one that is) because when left on our own, when there are no
pressures and deadlines, when we are ‘free’, more often than not, we end
up doing nothing or just little if anything were done at all as a Scottish
proverb goes, “What may be done at any time will be done at no time.”
This is something we can imbibe and incorporate into our lives, transforming
ourselves into a lean – mean accomplishing machine.
Another important thing is not to wake up, what I would
call “The avoidance monster”. This is a phrase used to describe what can
happen when you try to coax yourself into doing a task you don’t feel like
doing. Experiencing the unpleasantness can intensify your desire to avoid the
dreaded task. The solution or remedy lies in the words of Mark Twain who said, “The
secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Take another example of a person cooking for
himself/herself but does not feel like it. Cutting an onion is the first step
(although it does not have to be this way, it can be anything). From then on,
the other motions begin to flow.
One key thing to keep in mind in regard to this is to
never set any requirements as to how much you must actually accomplish beyond a
simple initial step. If you start to insist on doing more you feel like doing,
you’ll wake up the ‘Avoidance monster’ and it will be all over. This
strategy is best suited to tasks that require creative effort. For example,
consider a writer who wants to write but does not have the inspiration or is
running out of ideas. The best solution in this case is to just write what
comes to mind or brainstorm ideas. One can either do it by hand or on a
computer or a laptop. Yet, a word of caution has to be kept in mind in regard
to this is not trying to force the ideas if they are not coming. If you feel
stuck, leave it, and return to it after some time. Using this strategy is a bit
like attracting birds you’d like to watch. Your job is to create the most
inviting conditions. The rest is up to the birds. 
The next thing is to seek follow up help from somebody
else. Pythagoras once said, “A blow from your friend is better than a kiss
from an enemy.” If I were to put it in a different context, it would mean
this, if you don’t have a friend to correct you, pay an enemy to do it.
Delegation is very useful as it frees you from other obligations to focus on
those things you really want. Also, delegation is useful where there are things
you cannot do or do not know how to do it. So even if you cannot do or don’t
have the knowledge to accomplish the job, you can get someone else do the job
for you. And if this is not possible, see if you can find a group with like –
minded individuals or form a group that share the same mentality and hold each
other accountable.
When
you’re the only one who can do something that must be done, you can always pay
someone to see to it that you’ll actually do it. This may at first sound
foolish, wasteful and unnecessary but just think about it. If you’re not doing
something that you’ve decided you should do, how much would it be worth to get
yourself in gear? Put differently, how much will it cost you to not
do what you intend to do? If not following through will cost you more than it
would cost to hire someone to make you follow through, wouldn’t it make sense
to spend the money? Or just think for a moment, just the very act of giving
money away to someone for something which you ought to do but are not doing can
be an incentive to take action. Like for example, another effective tactic
would be is to pay someone when you’re task is not completed. It’s kind of like
a penalty.
Reward
is a great boost to get things done, however, punishment or loss can be equally
motivating in the sense that not having what you want to have something that is
really important because of something you did not do becomes a stimulus to get
things done. For example, if you know the bus is going to leave at a particular
time, you know you will have to be there on time because if you don’t you’re
going to miss the bus. Or if the thought that not making a particular payment
on time would incur a huge late payment fee, would automatically cause you to
take the necessary steps to not let such a thing happen. That’s how the sense
of loss can be motivating.
To
conclude with a question, ‘How would you like yourself to be in a couple of
years from now or more?’ To think about the pleasures and the joy you would get
by accomplishing what you want to achieve and to imagine the pain you would
feel or experience if you were not do what you are supposed to do, requires a
little bit of mental effort but it’s worth it. In a word, we could summarize it
as,
F
– Follow
O
– One
C
– Course
U
– Until
S
– Successful
Successful
individuals are able to accomplish a lot not because they are great multi –
taskers but because they know that their priorities are and chase after it like
a cheetah running at great speed to catch a gazelle. In fact, we may as well
say that multi – tasking is a myth because humanly speaking, our minds can
focus only one thing at a time. Trying to concentrate on two things at the same
time is like trying to catch two rabbits at the same time which in the end is
pretty obvious, you would get neither of it. Last but not least, success is a
ladder you cannot climb with your hands in your pockets. Improving your follow
through ability is not just a way to be productive. It’s also a way to achieve
contentment and personal satisfaction that goes well beyond success. But
contentment and personal satisfaction don’t come simply from keeping lots of
promises. They come from keeping all the promises you make – from leaving no
promises unkept. This means that your inclination to make promises must be in
sync with your ability to keep promises (this could also mean saying ‘no’ to
certain things).
Having
unkempt promises is like living in debt. To avoid debt and enjoy peace of mind
that comes from being debt – free, you have to keep your spending in sync with
your income. If you’re spending more than your earnings, you have to make
adjustments to get things back in balance. If you can’t earn more, you just
have to spend less.
To
enjoy contentment and personal satisfaction beyond success, you have to be
promise debt – free. So even if you’re keeping lots of promises, if you’re also
leaving lots of promises unkempt, it’s time to make some adjustments. If you
can, improve your follow – through ability. But if you can’t, by all means, cut
back on your promise – making. Remember, if it’s contentment and personal
satisfaction that you’re after, it’s better to make fewer promises and keep
them all than it is to make more promises you can’t keep.
I
hope what I have shared would help spur you on in taking the leap forward to
take your life to a higher level as I journey on my own path, a fellow
traveller of life. Once again, wishing you and your loved ones a happy new year
and many great tidings to come. God bless!
