Top Gear: Useful Internet Marketing Strategies & Tips to Move You Forward: 3 Reasons Why Your Work is NOT Getting Done (FS163)

Friday 20 May 2016

3 Reasons Why Your Work is NOT Getting Done (FS163)

There’s ALL this work we want to do… but it’s not getting done.

This is the work that’s going to lead to our success — the ideas and projects and tasks that our careers are built on.

… and I’m getting distracted…

… and I’m resisting the work…

… and you probably are too. It’s ok, you can be honest; this is a safe place.

So here’s three reasons why we’re NOT getting our projects and tasks done.

Note: There is both a video and a podcast that goes along with this. You can find the podcast at the end.

Watch the video:

1. We don’t clearly define our tasks/projects

I have always struggled badly with this one.

We need to take very seriously the naming of our projects and tasks.

And that might sound a little pedantic or “yea, i really should do that,” but damn… we can solve so many of our productivity problems by spending an extra minute on our tasks to write them CLEARLY.

When we don’t clearly define our projects, resistance WILL start to grow like a weed on our todo list.

So, instead of writing something like “redesign website” or “trip to California,” take it a step further and add some clarity.

When our todo list items are written with clarity, resistance won’t be able to develop and we’ll have more energy about getting the right work done.

Here’s a tip to help you:

Tip: Reverse engineer your project/task

Instead of writing simply “redesign website,” think backwards from your desired outcome.

Before the website redesign is live… it has to be coded.

Before I can code the website… it needs to be designed.

Before I can make the design… i need to define the goals of the website redesign.

So my next action is “Define goals of the website redesign,” which is MUCH more clear and active than “Redesign website.”

2. We forget why a project is important

When we forget WHY a project is important we start to lose our energy about that project.

We don’t see the point of it, the purpose, the importance of this project to our business or lives…

… and the wind goes out of our sails… and the work doesn’t get done.

In fact, I MYSELF made this error and we caught live on the podcast (episode at the end of this article). We actually look at my todo list and see a project I completely lost steam on…

… and it’s because I had completely forgotten about why it’s important.

Here’s a simple tip to help you remember WHY your tasks and projects are important.

Note: these tips take work, but honestly it’s only SECONDS of work, and it’s one of the best investments you can make in yourself.

Tip: Add “Because…” to your projects/tasks

The one’s real quick: just add “Because…” or “So that…” to the end of your tasks.

Some examples:

Define goals of the website redesign BECAUSE it will give me the insights I need to create the design.
Create course outline SO THAT I can talk it through with steph before the final draft.
Create an email hook giveaway BECAUSE it will impact every visitor to the site if it’s compelling enough.

This tip works because it forces you to think about and remember WHY any particular project or task is important.

We’re not confident it’s the right work

You’ve probably felt it before when it’s really easy to brainstorm and come up with ideas for new projects to pursue.

But when it comes time to actually DO that work and start some of those projects we resist it, we get distracted… and 3 months later the project still isn’t done.

This resistance might happen because we’re not confident this task or that project makes the most sense to start right now.

Because most of us are making it up as we go along… we don’t have someone to tell us what to focus on… we have to make our own decisions.

So it’s no wonder we don’t have a ton of confidence in some of our own project ideas.

So, if you’re an honest-to-god trailblazer doing something nobody’s ever done before, you’ll have to be honest with yourself about that, acknowledge that you won’t have much in terms of externally validated certainty… You gotta make your own decisions and stick by them.

But, if you’re doing something that others have done before you CAN find some help. You can find what I call a guru.

It could be a person, a mentor, who’s been there before and can help you feel more confident about what to do next.

Or it could be a resource — like a book or course — that can guide you.

A great example of this is the Fizzle Roadmap, which is a guided, step by step method for starting and growing a business. All the steps are in the right order, you know where you are, what’s next and what’s most important right now.

There’s probably a guru like this for anything you want to do (though most would be books instead of interactive training).

So, maybe one reason why you’re not completing the projects you want to is because, deep down, you’re not confident they’re the right thing to work on.

That’s good! That’s honest. And it just might be wise.

Maybe there’s a guru out there that can help you understand what’s most important for your work right now.