Getting to Completion

Articles that appeared in The New Leaf ™.

It's easy to lose focus, energy and attention by letting old ideas and half-completed projects linger in our work or head space. Here are three simple steps to clearing that space and getting to completion so that you can move on.

1. Take a minute and look around you. What tasks are left over tasks from yesterday, last week, last month? Write them down.

2. Classify them:

a) Those you never really wanted to do and don't really care about.

b) Nagging commitments that won't go away but that you manage never to do very well or very completely.

c) Near crisis-status must-do-now items.

3) Take action:

a) Take 30 minutes to throw out; recycle or otherwise remove visual traces of the things you don't really need to do and won't do. This requires you to get realistic and honest with YOURSELF about what matters to you and what doesn't. (If 30 minutes is not enough, repeat this action daily until you are through.)

b) Set aside an hour each day to work through the chronic backlog of things that are important but which you've been putting off. Make this the same hour every day so that you build continuity and confidence in this process.

c) Schedule time to complete important urgent tasks. Be specific, first assessing how much time each task will require. If these are recurring tasks (quarterly taxes, monthly accounting) schedule them in to your planner for the next time they should occur so that these become part of the rhythm of your life instead of crises which interfere with it.