Thank you for the article. I think it would make a great blog post!! Would you like it to be a guest post on this blog?

Cheers,
Ros

Happy New Year to you as well.

I agree. I think it’s a good article to re-read at least once a year, or more in my case.

Cheers,
Ros

Happy New Year to you!

I know first-hand from experience that with deadlines comes the urgency to prioritze and use a stick to it thinking. I really agree with your thinking on this post since it does influence one’s thinking when it comes to tasks at hand and the strong need to finish the project in a timely fashion once initiated.

I hope you read this response even though I am responding to an old post but still the content of this article has a great deal of relevancy all year long.

Thank you.

“How to Overcome Procrastination and
Get More Done in Less Time”
By John Jude O’Callaghan

After thinking about the universal problem of how to get more done in less time, in 1955, British economist Cyril Northcote Parkinson, formulated a Universal Law that gets to the root of the problem:

Work Expands to Fill the Time Available For Its Completion

The moment I heard his explanation I knew it was true.

At that time I was working in a British engineering factory where you got paid by the number of hours you worked. I clocked in at 7.30 AM and clocked out at 5.30 PM.

If it was 3.30 PM on a Friday afternoon and I knew I could finish the job in hand by 4.30 PM, instead of starting a new job and working on it until 5.30 PM, I invariable took two hours to complete the job I could normally complete in one hour.

I simply dragged the work out to fill the time available!

For Example:
If you are ambitious and one of your goals is to write a novel about all the interesting people you have met and all the interesting things you have done so far, and you don’t impose a deadline, how long do you think it might take you to finish your novel?

Since you are under no pressure and have no self-imposed deadline, the strong likelihood is that you will never get around to finishing it, and that you will most likely die with your great story unfinished, untold and unpublished.

And, not only will you be poorer; the world will also be a poorer place because of it!

But what if, instead of always intending to finish your novel one day, you were to write a 7-page chapter in one week, plus a synopsis of what the rest of your novel was about, and sent it to a likely publisher.

What if the publisher loved it and sent you a contract with a deadline for completion and an offer of a $20,000 advance toward Royalty payments. Do you think that might encourage you to finish your novel PDQ?

Even if you don’t aspire to write a book, no doubt there are at least lots of other things you intend doing, one day, when you can find the time.

But, what if, instead of giving yourself a long list of things to do, you were to make it just “3-Things to Do Today” and numbered them in critical order of importance? And, you determined to finish task #1 before moving on to the next?

The likelihood is that most of the things that didn’t get done were not that important anyway.

Or, if they were important, maybe you could outsource them, meaning, pay someone $10 an hour to do them for you?

The Quick and Easy Way to Overcome Indecision

Use the proven Benjamin Franklin Method:

• Start with a blank sheet of notepaper and draw a straight line down the middle.
• Put a heading at one side FOR and a heading AGAINST at the other side.
• List the entire pro’s and con’s as appropriate.
• Give each entry a numerical value of one to three depending on how important you think it is.
• Add the numbers in each category. If one side is an obvious winner, go with that.
• If there is no clear winner, consider what you might lose by not making a decision.
• And what if you do make a mistake? No big deal. At least you will have discovered something that does not work!

_________________________________________________

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.” Samuel Smiles.

Thanks for the post on “Eat The Frog”. I think I’ve fallen into that trap more times than I can count. My reasoning for doing so is simply that I’m trying to time or plan a project. You know even the best of plans tend to go awry. However, from reading your posts; you come across as an organized and timely person with all your projects/work.

As always, I enjoy reading your posts. Have a great summer!

Thanks,
Dan

Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the post.

I totally get the bit about being a writer since the age of 8… I think some of us are born writers, but stil find it hard to get up and going at it. Whatever works for you… find it and make it work.

Cheers,
Ros

Cheers,
Ros

(Actually, I don’t eat ‘em either… they’re WAY too cute.)