September 6, 2007

The Underachieving Method

Here’s a method to help you become more efficient and complete more projects:

It is actually a technique I employ whilst working on most of my projects. I call it ‘The Underachieving Method’.

It’s a method that helps you complete tasks and projects far quicker than you normally would.

It’s not new or revolutionary, but it does work and it works best when you need it most.

Often we find ourselves facing a particular project or task that we know is going to take many hours or even a few days or weeks to complete.

By breaking the task down into several small chunks and working on each of them one at a time often helps overcome the anxiety we often feel when faced with a large project.

A small, fairly easy to complete task is so much easier to ‘get your head around’, than the thought of the whole project.

For example, if I am writing the copy for one of my websites, I might start by giving myself the goal of just writing the headline. Nothing else, just the headline.

My next goal or chunk, may be to write the sub-headline. Nothing else, just the sub-headline.

Then I might work on the testimonials.

The sales page will progress like that over the next few days.

It sounds like a crazy and long way to get anything done. But often, unless I set myself ‘under achieving goals’, I’ll never actually start a project, let alone complete one.

Another example is when I come to write a blog post.

Instead of writing the whole post in one sitting, I may just set a goal of writing the outline for the post – the bare bones. Or some bullet points.

My next goal would then be to flesh it out and then check it for grammar and spelling mistakes.

And so on…

This is great for when I’m not really in the mood to write a long post. It helps to start me off and builds momentum.

I feel like I want to complete the task because the small goal or chunk of work I have set myself sounds easy enough to complete and I will get it done fairly quickly.

The project keeps moving forward and it stays fresh in your mind.

The Psychological Effect

This ‘under achieving method’ also has another effect; often I will set myself some very small goals (like my blog post goals) but actually end up completing the whole article/project in the same sitting.

I might actually sit at my desk all morning or even all day and get the whole project completed in a oner!

It’s a psychological approach that surprisingly works more often than not. (Even though I know what’s going on!)

It’s like going to the gym on a cold Monday morning. Sometimes you talk yourself out of going by making up really lame excuses.

The thought of having to do a heavy weights session or a long run is the last thing you want to do whilst sat at your warm desk sipping your coffee.

But try saying to yourself that perhaps you’ll go to the gym and just do a very light, gentle workout. Nothing too strenuous, just enough to keep you ticking over.

You can hear your inner mind saying “That sounds OK. In fact that actually sounds quite pleasant!”

Nine times out of ten you’ll get to the gym and actually complete the session you originally planned to do.

The thought of it is far more daunting than the actual reality.

The same applies to your online business. Try setting very small, easily achievable goals.

Once you’re engaged in the activity you will invariably complete more than you originally set yourself.

Plus, if you only complete the very small goals you set, at least you’re still moving the project forward and it will still get finished.

You’ll be amazed at how much more work you can actually achieve this way.

Peter

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Filed under Blog, Internet Marketing by Peter Tremayne