Finish it by Starting - Deepstash
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How to Run an Effective Meeting

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Finish it by Starting

The critical point is always where you enter the productive phase, and this is accomplished by starting alone. Finishing is only a matter of starting from where you are, as many times as you have to, until it’s done. 

Most of the resistance and stress is piled up on the boundary between the phases, and so once you’ve started it’s mostly behind you. You finish a thing by starting it until it’s done.

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MORE IDEAS ON THIS

The smart thing to do is obvious

It is to end the Counterproductive phase as soon as possible. This end is always a concrete, bodily action, often taken with some trepidation: opening up the word processor, dialing a phone number, or getting out a piece of paper so you can sketch up a plan.

89

413 reads

Halt the Pointless Rumination

When you halt your work on a given thing due to fear or aversion, you are re-entering the nonproductive phase. Physical action ceases, and pointless rumination begins. Anxiety will rise until you enter the Productive Phase again. This is a good reason not to switch tasks unnecessarily. Push one t...

86

302 reads

Life Cycle of a Thing

Life Cycle of a Thing

The problem starts when you know what you need to do, but don't. The anxiety, shame and fear lie between the knowing and the doing. Nothing else happens in this phase except your suffering and aging, we can call this the Unproductive Phase

At some point, often spurred by ...

98

488 reads

Receding Fear of Tasks

The anxiety from the Productive Phase, soon drown as you begin to realize that the task is pretty doable, is finite and consists of small, ordinary actions like Googling, reading, and sketching. 

Your sense of capability swells and the fear recedes. This phase takes less and less willpower ...

91

358 reads

Moving to the Other Side

The rising anxiety associated with a particular thing comes from a misapprehension of what it will actually be like to do the work. 

The anxiety associated with the work is made of abstract, big-picture emotional concerns, about reputation, legacy, anxiety for the future, self-este...

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256 reads

Beginning of the End

Many or most procrastinators are pessimists, habitually overestimating the difficulty of what they are avoiding. They think doing it is the hard part. But not doing it is much harder. 

The odd task that turns out unexpectedly hard doesn’t change anything — the counterproductive pha...

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335 reads

Hell Zone

Hell Zone

A Serious Procrastinator might experience the overlapping fear from many sources and begin to see them as a single problem: I suck at life. This makes it harder for them to do any task with longer Unproductive Phases and increased anxiety with a daring crisis to force them to ac...

94

321 reads

Ignore Your Stuff

Ignore Your Stuff

Consider your "stuff" as individual happenings that are best treated individually. Ignore all the others while you target to get started on at least one of those To-Do tasks. 

The distinction between stuff and things is important. Once you’re treating each obligation as separate from the w...

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554 reads

I Procrastinate

I Procrastinate

There are normal people, who get overwhelmed on those occasions when they have more obligations to fulfill than time in which to fulfill them.

Procrastinators are constantly overwhelmed because e...

101

893 reads

CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

vinamra_

Neuropsychology and Employees |Understanding passions and habits

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Finishing a task

You finish a thing by starting it until it’s done.

Finishing is only a matter of starting from where you are, as many times as you have to until it’s done.

Planning ahead

If you get to your work desk and have no idea where to start, it can lead you to work on low-impact tasks (such as checking email) or other worse forms of procrastinating.

Put together a plan or to-do list before starting work or any project. The night before is a good time to do thi...

Getting people to act

Getting people to act

  • Don’t advise until you’ve been invited to. No one is going to listen to you until they’re ready to.
  • Offer long-term support. It’s hard to implement big changes in your life, especially if you’re doing it alone.
  • Express confidence...

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