Getting Out of My Own Way Gets Things Done
Yesterday I spent the day getting in my own way while trying to write the long overdue “Work with Glenda†page. I even blogged about avoiding the task, rather than doing it!
This morning I attempted the task again. Surprisingly, the ideas and words flowed this time. Perhaps publicly declaring my goal to have something up by day’s end, to which my readers could hold me, was enough to get myself out of my way!
Or, perhaps it was the two pieces of advice that fellow tweeter John Hayden shared:
- Susan Murphy’s post “Want Real Success? Then Get to Real Work†in which she distinguishes between real work and fake work. How many of us keep busy with fake work rather than with real work? Great question!
- The Cult of Done Manifesto – this links to a graphical version without appropriate alternative text. The text version appears below.
The Cult of Done Manifesto
- There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
- Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
- There is no editing stage.
- Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
- Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
- The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
- Once you’re done you can throw it away.
- Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
- People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
- Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
- Destruction is a variant of done.
- If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
- Done is the engine of more.
Whatever it was, after 2.5 years of procrastinating, stalling, and, generally, getting in my own way, this blog now has a “Work with Glenda†page! Yes!
Admittedly, it is not perfect and will likely evolve. Feedback is most welcomed. But, it is a start. Getting that done feels so good and definitely deserves an extra scoop of chocolate ice cream tonight!
Did you manage to stay out of your way today?