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First of all, this column is not about dogs of the canine variety.
I'm using the phrase "dogs" in the sense of "dog days," referring
to dull, routine, uninspiring tasks. Your "dogs" are the day-to-
day necessities that aren't interesting, but are necessary to you
or your business's survival. We ADDers have the most trouble
getting started and following through on these dog tasks. As the
new year begins, wouldn't it be great to handle those dogs
with a fresh approach? The kind of tasks that you consider dogs are those that are
tedious to YOU. Another person may consider your dogs exciting,
or a motivating ritual.
Has last year's passion become this year's dog?
People with ADD tend to get easily excited by new things, but then
become bored quickly. As a beginning copywriter in her first
advertising job, Barbara was excited to be assigned a trade ad to
write for a fastener company. But after a year of gaining
experience writing radio and newspaper advertising, a trade ad of
this type was a "dog" for her. She still had to approach it with
her best effort, even though it no longer excited her.
Dog tasks may be dogs because they're dull and easy, OR
because they're tedious and difficult.
Andre faced two dogs at home. One was the project of creating
and installing shelves for the garage. Andre had done enough
renovation work to find this simple; he put it off because it was
boring to him.
Andre's second dog involved his promise to set up
a new home computer system. Andre avoided this task because he
knew it would require hours of reading the manual and trying to
figure out the technology - it was challenging, but something he did NOT enjoy.
Andre's daughter, Claire, on the other hand, had a knack for technology.
She would enjoy setting up the PC, so it would not be a dog for her. Have you been waiting for a sudden burst of motivation to handle
your dogs? This may work for a once-in-a-while dog. But what
about dogs with deadlines, a promise to someone else, or an
obligation to a client? The toughest dogs are open-ended projects,
where there's no definite deadline to drive you to action.
1. Create a deadline 2. Break the task into steps Don't forget to include pre-steps! Andre's garage shelves
required measuring the space and taking inventory of what had
to go on the shelves, BEFORE he cut the wood.
3. Schedule "DOG TIME" Think about how you'd work best when assigning your dog time.
Options to consider are:
4. Determine critical factors for focus and task completion:
INTERRUPTIONS LOCATION DELEGATION FOCUS STIMULATION Or, for several dog tasks, create a "circuit" of 10 minutes each,
where you'll jump from one task to another. Using a timer, see
how many tasks you can finish in an hour. (Note: This approach
is best for tasks that don't require high mental concentration!) It will become easier to handle your dogs as you do it more often.
AUTOMATIC SCHEDULING RITUAL TO CHECK CALENDAR ASSIGN SPECIFIC TASKS Once you get into a regular habit of working dog time efficiently,
you'll see your Great Danes become Chihuahuas!
Thrive with ADD kicks off 2005 with 11 teleclasses!
They're all at 9:00PM Eastern time, 90 minutes long. Audio recording and notes included with every class.
Mark your calendars and REGISTER through www.thrivewithadd.com Telephone Class Schedule
WILL YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE STILL BE UP IN JULY?: |
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Copyright 2005 Bonnie Mincu. The 'THRIVE with ADD Newsletter' may only
be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission from the author
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