Sometimes You Just Have to Make a Start
Posted On: 2015-02-26
Ok so I'm working from home today. Sometimes I just have to get out of the office environment and work from home where the phone doesn't ring as much and people aren't just popping in to see me or get my advice.
Usually working from home results in a very productive day but for some reason that's just not happening today. Perhaps that's because I got right out of routine by not getting into some serious work right from the time I got out of bed. I did work for a couple of hours but then spent the next 90 minutes having coffee with a friend at a beachside café and I guess that was the real productivity killer.
Sure, we talked business; this friend is also a client and does work for us so we had some business matters to discuss but sitting there in the sunshine listening to the waves hit the beach managed to really change our focus and both of us found it hard to get back to work.
We did eventually make the effort to get up and go our separate ways ... I mean you can only make a cup of coffee last so long and then the staff start giving you looks that tell you that it's time to order some or time to leave.
Now I've been home an hour and all I've done is flick between Facebook and my email inbox and that's not quite what I had in mind for the rest of the day. Today was going to be productive but it seems to want to turn into one of those rare days when I really can't focus on anything.
Do you have days like that? Days when part of your brain wants to work but most of it just wants to go out to a long boozy lunch and not come back till tomorrow? It would be nice if we could do that but when you work for yourself there's no way you can just wander off for a whole day and not do any work.
We've all got work that has to be done on a regular basis every day and if we don't do it the money eventually stops coming in and our business dies and that's definitely not what any of us would want to happen no matter how lazy we are feeling.
So how do you overcome the lethargy that turns your brain to mush and leaves you wanting to do anything but work?
There are lots of people who have suggestions on how to get back into the working groove and over the years I've come up with a few in my columns here but for me, today, there was only one thing that was going to have any chance of working.
I've got a list of things that I want to accomplish today and the only way to overcome my lethargy that is going to work today is to pick something from that list and then make a start. Of course, the thing I picked was this column and to get started with that I not only had to open up a Word document but I then had to overcome the problem of looking at a blank screen.
When I'm like I am today, actually making a start and putting something on that blank screen can be even harder than opening up the word processor in the first place. Fortunately though, the solution is pretty simple even if it isn't very elegant. When I'm feeling as lazy as I am today and have a blank screen in front of me I just start typing.
Somewhere in the back of my mind is a vaguely formed thought on what I want to talk about so I just start typing something that's connected to that thought. It might only take a sentence or two before my brain begins to slowly come to life and then the rest of the column just flows but that's enough to change the rest of the day for me.
I'm not sure that it has worked that way for me today ... at least I've almost got this column written ... but usually it is enough to keep the momentum rolling through the rest of the day and I end up getting a lot more done than I thought I would.
So if you're facing a day when all you want to do is act like a vegetable, but that's the last thing you can do, then just pick something on your list and make a start. Don't analyze your to-do list, just pick one thing and make a start and keep on going till you have finished it.
Sometimes all you have to do is make a start and then that build up of momentum will carry you through the day. Try it, it really does work.