The Power of Just Doing It

Devon Hopkins — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:00:16 +0000

We are the procrastination nation. It happens every day. You should be working on a presentation for next week’s meeting or finishing your paper for tomorrow’s class (or, more likely, starting it), but instead you end up reading FailBlog for an hour. (It’s just so damn addicting!)

Today, there was something that you should have done, but didn’t. But why? Identifying what is making you procrastinate is the first step.

I should have written a blog post last week. I did not write one. Why? Last week I read a post by Rebecca Thorman called “Stop writing about social media to be a successful blogger”. A lot of her points hit home.

There are a lot of social media “experts” (usually self-proclaimed) out there that tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing with social media, how things are supposed to work. Rebecca nicely points out that this is “really freaking boring”.

So that got me thinking. And I thought for a while. Am I boring? Am I unoriginal? Maybe. Probably. But at least I’m doing something.

Via the New York Times

Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, who recently had an interview with the New York Times in which she said:

“I grew up in the Midwest. My mom died when I was 8, so my grandmother raised my brother and me. She had a great sense of humor, and she never really let things get to her.

My favorite story is when we were on a farm in Wisconsin; I would have probably been 13. There was a snake up in the rafter of the machine shed. And we ran and said, “Grandma, there’s a snake.” And she came out and she knocked it down with a shovel, chopped its head off and said, “You could have done that.” And, you know, that’s the tone she set. Just get it done. Just do it. Pick yourself up. Move on. Laugh.”

I think this is a brilliant anecdote. It is often not the brilliant minds that have success or the most talent people that get noticed. It’s the people that get things done.

So, how do you become the type of person that gets things done?

1. Set goals for yourself so that you become aware of when you are procrastinating. Identifying when you are procrastinating is the first step. Set your priorities, use a list, and when you are doing things that aren’t on those lists, you know there is a problem.

2. Identify what is making you procrastinate. There are a lot of different reasons for not doing what you feel like you should be doing. Poor time management, distractions, fears, anxiety, boredom could all be your problem.

3. Fix it. Don’t attribute these causes for procrastination to outside causes. It’s easy to blame outlying factors and trick your subconscious into thinking that procrastinating is okay this time. You could say “Well, I can’t write my paper because they are mowing the lawn outside and it is really loud.” Or you could move somewhere else. Take control. If you are distracted, go somewhere where you aren’t.

It sounds simple, so just do it.

Devon Hopkins » New York Times

The Power of Just Doing It