How many things have you started and not completed?
The book you started but did not quite finish
The 5K you wanted to run every day
The Peloton machine your purchased but never used
The course you started but did not follow through
I struggled with this for many a year until I learned what it was costing me a feeling of dissatisfaction, stress and ultimately de-motivation.
I recall how writing one article would take me months whereas I can now complete a piece in 30 mins, but it depends on the subject.
If you have incomplete in your personal life, it’s likely you have them in business. For example:
Failing to follow up with clients
The report you keep meaning to edit and send out
The marketing emails that you have outlined, but have not sent
The information for your accountant
Revamping your website -content- hosting
Articles you have started but not finished
When I looked at my list there was a healthy list of incompletes and part of the reason was the perfection gene that runs inside of me and keeps getting in the way
Here is how you can tackle those tasks, that never get completed. You will feel amazing once you have started and completed your first tasks.
Make a list of your incompletes
Prioritise from 1-5
Select the first 3
Decide how you will reward yourself when you have completed the task
Choose 1 from the list – only 1 (start off small and work up to the biggies)
Do the first one now and do not progress to the next one until it is finished.
Enjoy your reward
Start again
One way to make this easier is to have an accountability partner. With this partner, you don’t actually speak to them about it. Once you have their agreement, when you are ready, you send them a text to say, ‘I am going to finish this proposal today by 5 pm.” They reply to acknowledge your intention. When you’ve completed the task, send them another text to say “done.”
That’s it. Still no conversation.
Even if you have not completed the task, they are not supposed to call or text asking how did you get on – this removes any feeling of judgement or having to explain yourself.
It is very effective, and if you keep doing this you will find that you will really work through your list of incompletes.
Incompletes get in the way of feeling great about yourself as it hangs over you like a cloud and re-inforces that stuck feeling – almost like you’re not progressing
When you have completed a task, especially one that you’ve kept procrastinating on, you feel great about yourself, your self-esteem goes up and you value yourself more.
Try it and you will be amazed at how much you have achieved.
