Set Micro-Goals

and read the prototyping textbook in the bath. Come up with an IDEA for my medium fidelity prototype.

Merlin at 43 Folders has this advice to help you blaze through hours when you want to procrastinate, but you know you’ve got to get your sorry ass moving.

He calls it (10+2)x5.

• chipping away at long lists of short tasks.
• folks who have trouble focusing for long periods of time.
• boring projects that can be broken into 10-minute chunks.

1. Get all your supplies ready and set up.
2. Set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes.
3. Work like the blazes until the timer goes off.
4. Then you get a 2-minute break to do anything you want to do, like have a cup of coffee, read an e-mail, or phone your bookie. You probably need to set a timer for this section as well, because otherwise you’ll get lost in la-la land and forget to come back to work…
5. But you MUST come back to work after your 2-minute break, so you can repeat the above formula five more times. Therefore you will have one full hour of productivity behind you! (Yay! Cheers from the crowd!)

Important Note: You do not have to finish your task in any of the ten-minute segments, nor even in the whole working hour. You just need to be able to move it forward by some appreciable chunk within that time.

First thing I’ve learned – it ain’t stupid! Making tiny little microgoals that can be done in like five minutes is a GREAT way to get yourself moving towards completion of larger goals. Microgoals just seem so much less intimidating than full-sized projects!

Somehow I know this idea is going to link up to my ringed index card organizer. Not sure quite how yet. Something about making a list of goals, then breaking each goal down into a list of steps, then making each little step into its own card on the ring. Hmmm…

The first card on the ring can carry the “Table of Contents” for the whole ring pack. It’s easy enough to replace if it gets full, or too confusing from having various things crossed off.

Post-It Notes Durable Tabs are great for subdivisions. Each project goal listed on the Table of Contents might get it’s own tabbed card. On that tabbed card, there might be a list of action steps to help me keep an overview of the whole project.

Behind each tabbed card will be a card for every action step. An action step can be as simple as “find the phone number to that place I need to call”. Once you’ve found it and written it on the card, you are one step closer to completing that project. You can put off actually PHONING that number for another day if you like.

Once all the steps of a project are complete, the project is done. Maybe I will keep some sort of file box for all my completed projects. If I wanted, I could tie them together with a bit of string or something so my fancy schmancy rings get saved for use only on my active notebooks. Keeping a file on all my completed projects (along with all their action steps) could be very encouraging when I’m feeling blue and I feel like “I never can do anything right”.

I got my second account set up, and have set many goals.

I’ve accomplished about four things so far!

I set up some goals as a “daily to-do” list, and will consider those done if I just check them off daily. I’ve used that check-off list to inspire me to do laundry, the bathroom, and the kitchen today, as well as making my bed. These are tasks which should be automatic, but which I tend to put of for ages. If I keep them up and do them daily, they will get easier and easier to do.

The kitchen isn’t perfect. But it is way better than it would have been if I’d ignored it like I usually do.

My daughter helps a lot, but it isn’t her job to be my household servant. She has a lot of school work to do, and I am proud of her for focusing on that, and grateful that she still does find time to help out practically every day. She does more housework than I do at this point, but I want to change that ratio. Since I’m not even working or in school there is no excuse for her doing more than I do, unless I am very sick.

So, I’m proud. That was a really good start to my new goal. Let’s hope I can keep the momentum going this evening when it is time for chores again.

I am tired of accomplishing so little. It makes me feel sick or something to always have to admit failure because I hardly ever actually accomplish the great and beautiful plans I set out to do.

If just making beautifully intricate plans, with research and charts and illustrations and overhead transparencies was the goal, I’d be in tall cotton. But if the idea is that I’m supposed to actually DO something I’ve planned to do, wellll… not such a high success rate there. Especially if you want to get picky about finishing it ALL.

I am getting really starved for a sense of accomplishment. I need to know I can do things I set out to do. I need to know I can count on myself to follow through. I’m just so afraid that I can’t follow through with very much. Especially if it’s boring or I can get distracted.

And I can ALWAYS get distracted. My brain is practically NEVER bored, because the minute boredom threatens I can find any number of things to focus on that suddenly become interesting.

Like, have you ever decided it’s time to tackle a nasty chore like phoning an old friend you owe money to and explaining why you haven’t repaid him in all these years… and then suddenly you realize that you have socks all over the floor and it would be the easiest thing in the world to just start a load of socks so you won’t have to trudge around like a swampfooted barbarian. And after starting your socks, you realize you really should hang up the clothes in the dryer. Except they’re wrinkled, so you decide to iron them… and suddenly it’s late at night, so you couldn’t call your friend any more today… and then it’s the weekend and they’re probably not even home… etc.

Chores we hate have a magical anti-magnetic repulsor field around them, which deflects us into doing almost ANYTHING else.

But if we really do care about getting a nasty chore done, we have to take steps towards it. Sometimes we find just starting gives us enough momentum to keep going until we finish. But even if we only did ONE little step towards it each day we WOULD eventually reach the finish point.

I need to have some micro-goals, so I can feel better about myself. I need SOMETHING I can point to and say I moved a step farther.
I need a way to track my progress, as well as plan out what further steps I could take.

This goal series is going to be so completely boring for anyone else to read. I’m going to give myself credit for goals that take all of five minutes to accomplish. I honestly don’t think I have the energy or the attention span to focus on something unpleasant for more than five minutes. That will be an honest challenge for me.

Fun stuff I can do all day long. I need to grow up a little, though, and get stuff done that isn’t fun.

I wish there were some way I could make these posts read-only/private for me, so others wouldn’t have to be bored by them.

Maybe I should set up another 43T account just for these sorts of goals. Nobody will know me, nobody will feel obligated to cheer anything I post, nobody will be burdened and bored by these stupid little goals (which I plan to post, work towards, and burn through as “done” by the handful every day).

I only hope I will remember and be diligent about checking that other account.

So okay. THIS goal is about setting up THAT account and THOSE goals, and will stay on my main account as a reminder.

I will consider myself to be making good progress if I check it and make plans on it once a day, and accomplish just one or two steps daily, at first.

I’ll update my standards as I prove to myself that I can handle it.

I really need to succeed at this one.