How to Do what you HATE -- it can actually be FUN

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By JulieMelillo
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Hated tasks can become a relief with this plan

There is something very freeing about making yourself do things you hate! Sound strange? Well, how many things do you have floating around in your mind right now that you've put off? It takes energy to have these thoughts in your brain. That's a cost to you and your peace of mind! The more "clutter" you have in your mind, the less room you have for creativity.

It's similar to hitting snooze on an alarm. That annoying buzzing will keep coming on until you get up and turn it off. Same with your cluttered thoughts. Those forgotten to-do items will keep popping up into your mind until you do them.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1

First, make a long, long list of all of those forgotten items that annoy you -- maybe you haven't been to the dentist in two years? Or have needed to buy stamps for a month, but the line is always too long. Perhaps there is a letter you haven't sent, something you really need to research on google, or a phone call you've been avoiding. Put everything down on this list and make it as long as possible. Challenge yourself to make the list as long as possible.
Step 2

Next, break each task down into ridiculously easy steps. For example: getting a part-time job sounds hard. So break it down into simple steps: spell check resume (that takes what, a minute? Easy). Type monster.com into browser (duh, a child could do that), type "librarian" into the box (simple!), bookmark all matches (takes a second), write 3 paragraph standard cover letter (might take 20 minutes), change form letter t fit each job (editing maybe five words at the most), email letter and resume to each job (fast).
Step 3

Now assign a priority to each easy task. Don't stress about this too much -- you'll know pretty quickly what really needs to get done. Keep it simple with a 1, 2, 3 rating, or the categories of ASAP, soon, and much later.
Step 4

Then place each task onto a calendar -- try to schedule everything within the next 30 days! Schedule high-priority items sooner.
Step 5

Now, sit back and relax! Instead of your brain popping up mental snooze alarm reminders for "difficult" tasks, distracting you, annoying you and stealing your brain power that you need for creativity and other tasks -- you can instead relax! Just follow your plan and it will tell you exactly what you need to do each day! You can take comfort in the fact that each step is so easy, it will only take you 5-10 minutes.
Step 6

Celebrate! You've checked everything off your list!

Comments

mbertani said

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on 12/13/2008 Great article! Very good advice, being able to break complicated things down into simple ones is a great skill to master, sometimes all it takes is just setting your mind to it.