How to Get Stuff Done When You’re Working For Yourself

April 30, 2014, 5:12PM

I’m a productive person.  I like to get stuff done.  I’m not new to this.  I make lists, I use Outlook to schedule my days and my tasks.  I have a spreadsheet of running projects and detailed steps to complete them.

But now it’s 5:14PM, I’ve got to leave for yoga at 5:30PM and where did the day go?  I did my day-job stuff.  I emailed the landscaper to follow up on a quote.  I updated expense information for my startup business.  I sent three personal emails.  So it’s not like I wasted the day.  But crap.  I’m staring down a weekly to-do list full of tasks that I haven’t done yet, including making progress on my two most important goals: revising my manuscript and updating my blog.  Staring at a list full of things to do that are not checked off feels like staring the in the face of futility.

I’m irritated with this day.

I did not get up early to work on editing my book and I didn’t work on it during lunch.  I just…ate lunch.  OK it’s after work and I’m writing this blog post.  But now it’s 5:17PM and I have 13 minutes until I need to be in the car, on my way to yoga.

This isn’t working.

I didn’t want working on my book or blog to feel like pressure or a chore, or something negative that I dreaded.  Nobody is forcing me to do these things.  My deadlines are made-up.

That’s the problem.  I’m really good at meeting deadlines imposed by structures outside of myself.  Whenever I’ve taken classes, I’ve always done my homework and turned in my assignments on time.  I pride myself on always hitting my work deadlines.

But when it is my own deadline, it’s much easier to blow off.

5:27PM.  Got to go.  Dammit.  Just when I was getting somewhere with this blog post.

May 1^st, 2014, 6:28AM

Milo kept walking on me and making noise so I got up.  I wanted to be up before 7AM anyway to work on my book and this blog post before I start my day job.  So now I’m up and my eyes are barely focusing.  Is this how it has to be?  In order to make progress on my writing I have to be pushed into it?

When I was working my corporate job and running on adrenaline I got a ton of stuff done.  I was always going, rushing, doing.  Since I’ve unplugged from that machine, I’m on a slower pace.  I’m still efficient with specific projects, but I don’t get as much done in a day.  Transitions take longer.

I’ve been emailing a friend about this topic and he sent me a link to this article about Jerry Seinfeld’s Chain Habit.  The idea is to put an X on a calendar for every day you work on your goal.  When you see the lines of X’s, you don’t want to break the chain.

It’s like when we were kids and we got a little star sticker for each day that we did whatever task we were supposed to do.  Except that back then, it didn’t motivate me.  I felt manipulated and the reward of a sticker wasn’t stronger than my drive for autonomy.

But now I’m only struggling against telling myself what to do, and making a daily commitment worked for me in the past.  When I finally got my first draft written for my book, it was because I committed to opening my word doc every single day and writing one sentence.  Even on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day when I was at my parents’ house, I had my PC with me.  Of course once I had the word doc open I wrote a lot more than one sentence.

I’ve been frustrated with how little I’ve done to revise my book, and think the solution is the same one that I did with the first draft – to commit to opening the word doc and revising one sentence every day.  I kept deluding myself that I need larger chunks of time to get my head into editing mode, but I haven’t been using the big blocks of time that I do have so it’s time to try something else.

There’s got to be a way of making significant progress without resorting to becoming addicted to the process.  Or maybe there isn’t.  Because the Chain Habit or committing to writing every day no matter what feels like an addiction as much as a habit.

Maybe the difference is limiting the time spent.  Maybe it is healthy enough to be addicted to writing a bit every day if I also do my day job well and keep enough time in my day for the other things I want to do plus a certain amount of unstructured time each week.

I emailed my friend about this and he wrote back musing about the difference between addiction and habits.  I found an article on the topic that says habits can be good or bad and we have control over them.  Addiction is negative and compulsive.

When I was in the habit of writing for my book every day, it felt good to make daily progress.  Most of the time I wrote in the morning and started the day feeling good about working toward my goal.  The times when it was late at night and I was tired and didn’t want to open my computer, I felt a sense of panic and did it anyway.  I felt a compulsion.  I did the work even when I didn’t want to, even when it was difficult to get to my PC, because I didn’t want to feel disappointed in myself for not doing it.

I wish I didn’t have to pressure myself or create a situation where I feel afraid and dread if I don’t work on my writing.  But at this point, the desire to achieve my writing goals is bigger than the desire to avoid bullying myself into doing the work.

I also hate being tied to my PC, but my PC is where my work happens.  If I know I’m going to be away from my PC, I could save my files on OneDrive and at least go through the motion of opening the docs on my phone and writing.  I could also write a blog post long-hand in my notebook and transcribe it later, and do the same with my book revisions, but it isn’t as effective as typing into my word doc.  They aren’t perfect solutions but I guess I’d rather use these contingencies than “break the chain”.  I’d rather have these backup plans in place than not set my goal in the first place.

May 2, 2014, 7:38AM

I got up at 6:30AM again today, and went right to my PC to work on this blog post.  It’s day two of my new chain habit, and I can already X-off this goal.  There’s still a little time to open my book document and revise at least one sentence today.

Then I’ll make a cup of tea and raise a toast to myself: here’s to my new addiction.

Tags: outlines, plans, rework