I don’t know about you, but many of the items on my project list are pretty monstrous. The kind of thing I look at during my weekly review and feel just a little ill. This is especially true of my projects at work, many of which will take several weeks to complete. It can really take the wind out of your sails when you spend a full day working on something and make very little progress.
Because of this looming cloud that tends to develop over my head, I’ve sought refuge in the hands of the small victory. Whenever I’m feeling particularly unproductive, I find something easy on my lists; something I can hammer out in a few minutes, and glory in the swift, deliberate stroke of my pen as I strike it off. A couple of those and I’m ready and raring to attack the problem project with the vigor of a thousand tigers. Well, maybe more like 250…
David Allen actually mentioned something like this during his interview with Merlin Mann when he talked about how you could tell he was putting off a big project by how great his house looked. I feel the same way, except I don’t view it so much as an escape as I do a mental preparation for “the big one”
Anybody else have any strategies for dealing with a real pain-in-the-ass project?
Technorati Tags: gtd, stress, productivity
Written by Brett Kelly
GTD