Done

As a followup on being tired, I love a point that Greg makes in Effortless, where he talks about making the most challenging task on your plate the easiest.

Imagine you have a large, unclear task, that you’ve been staring down the barrel of for days. People are counting on you, you know you’re capable of it, but it just feels so absolutely overwhelming. You’re tempted to tinker with it, keep tweaking it, modifying it, working on it but not finishing it, not shipping it.

He recommends taking 60 seconds and writing down what Done looks like on that project. Write out what it looks like in its accomplished state. I’ve had projects that I’ve worked on that have so many apparent blockers and dependencies, that I move from one half start to another, seemingly always the same distance away from when I started.

Taking Greg’s advice we could shift the mindset away from everything possible that could be done with the project, but instead writing down a list of what makes up meaningful and extensive progress. It takes ownership back into our hands, giving us the autonomy to decide and act on what we know to be true.

The next question is, if we complete everything on the list, would be satisfied with the project? Would we be haunted if we didn’t complete it?

These little ways of handling things feel trivial, but sometimes are the means of unlocking us and helping us take action.