Today, as I began my New Year's resolutions and started cleaning/detailing my car, I realized that I had fallen into a pattern which is all too common. We want to do small tasks to fix what we can, what will show demonstrable improvement, no matter how fleeting, right before us, rather than to prioritize and start on the huge task what is important. There are plenty of large, important tasks I could do, redo my website, review my business/marketing plan for the upcoming year, read relevant books, magazines and journals, start working on my own workbook (with audio practice) for sale, clean out my files and closets, etc.
So why did I escape to do a task which would show visual results, i.e., cleaning my car? (1) I have a meeting and want the car to look good, after all I do teach others that any meeting starts when you emerge from your car (or earlier, so drive politely); (2) I could use the exercise; or (3) I would have the satisfaction of having cleaned the car better than they do it at the regular car wash! When I was in law school, a stressful time, I started polishing the wood floor UNDER the area rug. The real reason I did it? It is easier to do something like that, which shows visual results than do the work piled up on my desk.
I use an electronic calendar of activities to be completed within the day. They are prioritized, of course, and yet the big projects keep getting delayed!
I do not consider myself to be a procrastinator. Certainly I don't revel in it like Jorge Cham (Ph.D. Scientist/Cartoonist)[i]. I never thought that I would be among the "worrisome 15 to 20 percent of adults (who) routinely put off activities that would be better accomplished right away." [ii]
Are we doing too many things at once? YOU BET. Recent research has clarified what happens to in our brains when we multitask. We are switching focus, "the brain can't effectively handle more than two complex, related activities at once." [iii]
So when I came inside after completing the car, I thought that this might be just the time to serve frog legs for an appetizer.[iv] We all know that we need to prioritize, but like most imperfect beings, we need to be reminded and try not to do too much (over) cleaning/small tasks in the meantime. Unless, of course, you have broken down that monster task into small ones, which you can now accomplish and have some visible reward. Like my pulling out this blog from my drafts folder and sending it out! Now, that is some valuable cleaning!
To learn more tips and techniques for better communication results, please contact Making Conversation at www.makingconversation.com. Peggy Wallace, Making Conversation LLC. (www.makingconversation.com) can improve your communication skills and enhance your interview preparation.
Present your best self by being authentic and enthusiastically showing your own unique personality; open doors by winning with words.
Contact Peggy for private sessions at Tel # (760) 803-2641 or e-mail Peggy at peggy@makingconversation.com
Be authentically yourself. Establish rapport. Making Conversation can assist you to develop responses which are thought out ahead of time, not the "automatic” or “right" response, but your personal best answer. If you communicate effectively with confidence and ease, your answers will persuade the interviewer to become your advocate.
Author Bio: Peggy Wallace's Making Conversation offers group and private conversational skills sessions as well as private interview preparation, with videotaped interview practice. Interview prep for college, jobs and scholarships assists you in developing clear, concise, persuasive and relevant personal stories which exhibit your individual strengths. Peggy is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania/Wharton School and Boston University School of Law. Peggy was a regional alumna volunteer interviewer for undergraduate admissions to Penn/Wharton for over 25 years. Peggy's business experience includes corporate attorney, fundraiser and financial services sales consultant.
[iii] http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/multitasking-splits-the-brain.html http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794 and http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/business/yourmoney/25shortcuts.html?_r=4&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin&oref=login
[iv] http://www.fastcompany.com/article/work-smart-do-your-worst-task-first "Author Brian Tracy calls this "eating your frog," quoting Mark Twain. Twain famously said that if the first thing you do in the morning is eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you. Your frog is your worst task, and you should do it first thing in the morning."
