Author: Steven Aitchison (382 Articles)
The owner of this blog. Proud father, doting husband, blogger, hire me as freelance writer, and addiction worker
Life can become a movie sometimes where we are the ones sitting back and watching life pass us by. We have many ideas to make our lives better but we seem to be stuck in an inertia phase.
If you don’t take action, you will regret it, whatever it is you need to take action for. You are someone who is filled with the get up and go to change your life in so many fantastic ways if only you would get up and do something about it.
Here are 8 ways you can get up and take action:
Wipe the slate clean – If you have too many projects on the go, clear them all and start from scratch. When you have wiped the slate clean, concentrate on thing at a time until it’s finished and then move onto the next. If you can’t clear everything, just drop them temporarily, concentrate on one thing until it’s finished and then move on. You will find you move a lot quicker through everything you need to get done.
List everything – Make a list of everything you would like to do, whether it be cleaning the house to taking the dog a walk. Write it down.
Prioritise – Pick the most important thing you have to do for the day, or week or year, and then pick the next most important thing and so on until you have reached the bottom off your list.
Eliminate distraction – No I don’t mean kill your partner! Eliminate the things you do from day to day that distracts you from taking action for example TV, books, computer. When you eliminate distractions, your mind wants something to do and this makes you more inclined to take action on the things you want or need to do.
Take a day off – Maybe a bit contradictory this one. It’s a simple piece of advice but one that is hard to do. Just take a whole day off, the world will still turn, the work will get done and nobody will die because you are not there. You will come back refreshed and ready to take action again which means you will be a lot more productive than you would have been should you have kept going.
Clear the clutter – Clearing the clutter, whether it be from your desk, your house, or your wardrobe. When there is clutter in your life there is clutter in your mind, clearing the clutters clears your mind.
Analysis paralysis – This is the term given to people who are analysing things too much and it keeps them from moving on. Stop analysing and just do it. There comes a time when you have to stop evaluating something and just bite the bullet and do it, if it doesn’t work out do something else and start again.
Change the narrator of your thoughts – Do your thoughts predominantly sound like Elmer Fud on dope; ‘Yeah, I have to get up but I can’t be arsed, I’ll do it tomorrow’. Change Elmer Fud to someone who gets you going, someone who can motivate you into doing something. It can be anybody from your best mate to your wife or a film star, anybody as long as they can motivate you. This can be quite amusing and the results can be great.
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Why not pay someone to clear the clutter? I get calls from people all the time who want a cleaning team to come into their home and give them a fresh start.
Loved the last one! Elmer Fud wouldn’t motivate me either.
Wiping your slate clean is a good tip too. I’m someone that has a tendency to take up too much projects, and get stuck. Working on too many projects at the same time is not fulfilling, it’s guilt inducing. When working on project A you’re thinking about not working on project B-H. I wiped my slate clean early this year, very refreshing!
To add to the post, I have two recent posts that touch on this subject too. One’s about 10 sources of distractions and how to eliminate them, the other’s about getting started when you don’t feel like it.
Now I’m off to think about what voice would motivate me (positively), don’t need no screaming in my ear too…
short and sweet mate, thank you for a great post.
I think most people would like to change their lives in some way, they just need that little extra push to get them moving. These 8 suggestions give you that and more.
Steven, my favourite’s “Take A Day Off”. To me, it serves 2 purposes, provides ample time to reflect my priorities and work on what’s more important instead of those that are seemingly more urgent. As well as a deserving break before all that action.
A caution : Don’t extend your days off, else you may find yourself doing much lesser than you were before.
Cheers,
Ellesse
List everything down is something very powerful to me.
I realized when I list down everything, I get to organize it and see clearly what I need to do next. when I’m clear, I don’t need to get frustrated or feel busy in my head.
I list down, I get clear, I plan out, I take action!
Alex Liu
How To Become A Millionaire
http://secretsofunlimitedwealth.com
great advice! thanks so much….
Discipline is needed to handle most of the advices posted here. We can slowly practice some day by day till we master all. With determination, I believe anyone can save time and be productive wiht the 8 ways written here. Thanks for sharing.
Good advice in your post. However, I guess I can say about myself is calling the pot calling the kettle black. I am probably guilty of not following the advice.
Does anyone really think taking a day off will create action? It does because it clears the big desk off – the brain.
Thanks for your great advice! I agree by taking a day off, it helps a lot.. it’s nice to feel that you’re away from your work, and you time to relax and think things over..
Clutter can definitely manifest inside your mind. When you always come home to a messy environment, chances are, the mess will affect your mind or your mood subconsciously. A lot of clutter can easily make a person unproductive.
Thanks for these ideas. I have all these great ideas and goals, but putting them into action is my biggest sticking point. I just need to get started to set things in motion. Today is the day!
Thanks everyone for commenting on this post. It seems a lot of people need to take a day off, lol.
Hi Steven, I haven’t been by for awhile. You site is looking great. I have been thinking about a Kindness project for bloggers to come together and bring their resources to make for a better world.
Check out my blog today and let me know what you think. I am a social activist at heart and it seems the world needs a good dose of kindness to get us all heading in the right direction.
Hope you are well and I look forward to reading your thoughts,
Joseph
http://www.ExploreLifeBlog.com
http://www.peace-together.com
Loved the 8 things you have listed. I will be going over them later on tonight with my wife. I will let you know how this went…lol
There is a twist on “write everything down and then choose the most important one to do first” – and it comes from Mark Forster, from his book “Do it Tomorrow”. It’s the difference between a ‘to do’ list and a ‘will do’ list.
A ‘to do’ list is endless – you never get to the bottom of it as new things get added all the time, and it is hard to choose which is the most important, as it will include ‘important and not urgent’ and ‘urgent not important’ items which need to be prioritized.
I ‘will do’ list is the list of things you will do today. For it to work, it needs to be do-able today (otherwise it becomes a to do list). I find it incredible powerful. Because something is on my will do list, I have committed to doing it, so I will work a little longer to finish it. Likewise, I won’t let myself be interrupted because I know I need to finish my will do list. And when I do finish it, I feel great.
Another advantage is that, since I know I will be doing everything on the list, it doesn’t matter what order I do them in – most difficult first or easiest first – it depends on how I feel.
If you haven’t come across Mark Forster, I recommend him, he is great value: http://www.markforster.net/
Best wishes
Catherine
For implementing GTD you can use http://www.gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.