Daily Action Fail #2: The “More is Better” Approach
Welcome to Part 2 in my series on why most people fail when trying to use small daily actions to get things done. For your convenience, here is the intro to the series:
“Research shows that consistent, daily action, even just 15 minutes per day, will help you reach your goals faster, and is more fun and rewarding, too. People who work in short, daily sprints make more progress and are more creative than those who work in the occasional larger blocks of time.
And yet, people are not necessarily successful when they try this approach. I think this is a shame; everyone can use this technique to help them make steady progress on their VIPP — Very Important Procrastinated-On Project.
The thing is, most people go about this the wrong way. In this series of blog posts, I’m going to examine the reasons that people fail with small daily actions. I’ll also help you with concrete steps as to what to do instead.”
In this blog post, I’ll tell you about the often disastrous “More is Better” Approach to Small Daily Actions, in which you decide that your small work session went so well that you must do giant work sessions from now on.
Let’s say you have decided on your VIPP (Very Important Procrastinated-On Project). And having read my last blog post, you have stopped using the “Scattershot Approach” to doing your daily action.
Let’s say you decide that you will work 20 minutes a day on the specific Very Important Procrastinated-On Project you’ve chosen, working on creating a new course.
Because you assumed that more is better, you’ve fried your brain cells. All that work may have been intellectually satisfying, but at the most primal level, your brain cells are screaming, “Don’t torture us like that! Don’t you love us any more?”
This is the danger of “Bingeing” on your work. Although it may work occasionally for some people, if you are working on a “Procrastinated-On Project,” then you can assume that there’s a reason you didn’t want to work on it before. Whether it was just boring or terrifying or plain old not fun, there was a good reason.
Just because you break through that barrier and start working on it, doesn’t mean that the avoidance mechanism of procrastination won’t rear its ugly head again if you’re not careful. Luckily, there are ways around the bingeing problem.
Stick to this method, because it works! And here’s why:
You can repeat these work sessions, but if you feel resistant to starting a new work session, don’t do it! The resistance in this case is a warning sign that you might be about to overdo it.
One small daily action is enough to get you big results in the long run.
Remember: More is not always better!
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Have you ever felt the unpleasant aftermath of bingeing? Do you think you would tend to want to do more and more work, and be dissatisfied with short work sessions? I’d love to hear your take on this technique!
I’ll have to check out that book, Mark! Now if I could only find time to read it…
I see that you write your blog posts on similar topics. I’ll have to check it out!
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I really enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing it.
It reminds of the concept of compound interest.
“One small daily action is enough to get you big results in the long run.”
There’s a great book about personal goals called ‘The Slight Edge’ by Jeff Olson. It really demonstrates the benefit of one small daily action.
Cheers!
Mark | Productive Physician recently posted..Finish: How to Defeat Perfectionism and Conquer Your Goals
I just reinjured my knee with the more is better approach. I didn’t realize how gentle I need be treated. Apparently that goes for my writing too. I do burn out faster than I want to. Then I go insane when I don’t work. It’s torture. Thank you for reminding me what sanity even looks like.
Sorry to hear about your knee injury, Laura — I hope it’s healed by now. You described the torture of the burn out-avoidance cycle well. I’m glad my post reminded you of what sanity is! 🙂
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