One bite at a time

Today we are on to strategy number 2 on how to help with overwhelming tasks and procrastination.  The last strategy I talked about was “Do one thing” where you forced yourself to do one thing for 10 min.  Today we are going to talk about making sure that we focus on just one thing at a time.

I know there are times when multi tasking can be a huge help.  But if you are already having a hard time getting started then focusing on just one thing will help you to feel less overwhelmed.  Do you ever start out with one task and by the end realize you’ve started several others and none of them are done?  You’ve spent 2 hours running around doing a lot of things but in the end you don’t feel accomplished because they are all half done.  The feeling you get when you are able to complete a task is going to be way more motivating to keep going.

There are a few sayings that relate to this…

” Pick one thing and do it well”

” To do two things at once is to do neither”

“Take it one step at a time”

But my favorite one that really speaks to me is “How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time”  Don’t you just love a good saying or proverb?  Sometimes I can get so overwhelmed thinking of all the things I think I need to do.  (read “think” I need to do.  There are many many things that I don’t NEED to do)  So I ask myself how to eat an elephant and it reminds me to focus on the task at hand.  If I can focus on one thing at a time then at least I’ll get that one task completed rather than have 10 different tasks at various stages.

When I’m feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day or feel that a task is to huge to complete, you’ll often hear me reciting “one bite at a time” it keeps me focused on the task in front of me before moving on to the next.  This is so hard for me!! When I am feeling energized and motivated I have such a hard time keeping on task.  But I know this method will feel so much better in the end.

Maybe you already have a mantra that you use. Please share with me any strategies you use to stay focused on one thing at a time, I would love to hear them!