Happy Monday! I have always loved the feeling of rebirth that Monday brings. The week is a clean slate. Last week’s failings are a thing of the past and now every possibility lays ahead of me. There are several need-to-dos rolling over from last week and if I’m honest, rolling over from the last year…
I need to update my website
I need to put up the family photo wall in the dining room
I need to lose 10 lbs
In reality, each of those to do’s are multi-step projects and by grouping lots of individual tasks under the same headline, I increase the chance that I’ll never actually get it done. Large projects and undefined, in-actionable tasks are breeding grounds for procrastination. Instead, I need to break down vague projects, into easily executable, sequential steps. For instance:
I need to redo my website becomes…
Update my professional bio
Draft an Artist Statement
Edit my Artist Statement (perhaps send to a friend for revisions)
Gather and organize professional photos
Create a photo gallery page on my website
Fix the mailchimp mailing list attachment
Post new recordings on media page
Write a few, brief sentences about founding OOPS MN; add website link
It’s no wonder that update my website has been on my to do list since the beginning of the pandemic. I haven’t clarified what update my website actually means.
I was talking with my sister last week and since starting a new job, she has been struggling with the work/life balance especially since she is working from home. As she has been working late nights, she has had trouble waking up before 8:00am. She told me that she needs to wake up two hours earlier to exercise in the morning so she can feel better.
First of all, she’s not getting enough sleep as it is. Second of all, she has turned self-care into another overwhelming time commitment that doesn’t fit into her schedule.
I recommended that for the first week, she wake up 10 minutes earlier and take a walk around the block with her dog. The second week, she can wake up 20 minutes earlier, and at that point, she’ll be walking a mile every morning.
10 minutes is a relatively insignificant change, and that’s why it will work—it’s manageable, easily repeatable, and scaleable.
How can you apply this #motivationmonday to your life? Ask yourself the following:
1. What inflated task have I been putting off doing and how can I break that amorphous project down into small, individually executable tasks?
2. What large lifestyle change have I been trying to enact and how can I reduce the commitment or expectation so that the overwhelming size is no longer a barrier to getting started?