How to define your task and manifest progress in your work

Do you ever find yourself saying I want to write more papers?  Do you sit and wonder why is it not getting done? The reason is that this way of thinking is blocking you from success. It is because the desired outcome is not defined. Even if you do get some writing done, there is no feeling of completion or accomplishment, as there was no defined task.

The way you are going to achieve your goals is by defining your activity. It feels very different if you say I will complete the literature review for the paper Y by Friday. Of course, you might start panicking right away: “There is so much that needs to be done, I’ll never manage to do it all in time, where do I start?…” (it is the Ego speaking, as they call it, it wants you to do all at once).

To accomplish something big you can start by defining your activity and taking the first small step. It goes like this:

1. Pick ONE important goal and define the activity you need to do. Say you want to write more papers. So defining the activity would be Draft the X paper.

2. Check if there are subparts to this activity? This helps you to chunk down a big goal into more doable parts. Example would be a literature review.

3. Ask yourself: What time will I begin this activity every single day? Example: 9:30. This is the time when you totally engage in your defined task.

4. Then what time will I finish this activity?  Example: 10:00. This is important for experiencing the feeling of completion. Use a timer (see my recent blog post on this)).

5. Finally decide what days of the week will you do this activity? Example Mon-Fr.

Does it sound simple and unlikely to work? Well all genius things are simple. (And they worked for me! I have managed to complete a review article (29 pages and 132 references) that just got published in the High Pressure Research journal :-)) Try these five steps, and you’ll see that the positive feeling of completion will create a momentum that you can carry on to the next day. This will bring motivation to the work on your desired activity. It will guard you from the unwanted situation when you spend 3h on your defined activity on the first day and then get so tired and exhausted that no way you will do it the day after. By following the 5 steps outlined above you’ll start manifesting real progress in your desired project in no time.

P.S. Setting a deadline and being accountable (to an accountability partner, for example) would increase the success of this simple system, but these productivity tools deserve a separate conversation and will be discussed in one of the coming blog posts.

P. P.S. And what would you say to this – the very same simple system can be apply to any area of your life, not just to a work project. Start by setting an intention and follow the same 5 steps outline above. Happy defining 🙂