For example, say that you’re a blogger. You can easily think of 10 different topics you’d like to write about, but you can’t really pinpoint the exact topic that you want to create into a post. What do you do?

Honestly? Just pick something!

Pick something. Pick anything. Stop debating. Just do it!

Don’t stand in front of the fridge debating what to eat for dinner. Just pick the best healthiest thing that sounds amazing to you, and chow down! Don’t stare at a stack of books mulling over what you want to read; just pick a book from the pile and read that first page. Can’t decide on what exercises to do? Well… maybe you can procrastinate on that for a day, like everyone else.

I’ve found out that little indecisions get in the way of life. They clog up my own mental RAM. For example, it’s no secret that I love writing for my blog. If I’m too busy debating what topic I want to write about, I’m not actually getting any work done. Ideas by themselves don’t provide value to my readers. But picking an idea, writing it up into an insightful blog post, and sharing it with people online gets the value out there. A little indecision like “what topic should I write about today?” can waste my time and put me in a worse position for tomorrow.

Likewise, procrastinating on eating makes me cranky. You don’t wanna deal with me when I’m cranky.

I’ve also noticed that even when I give myself a time limit to decide on what to do, I’m worse off than what I was. Thinking about my decisions for 10 minutes vs. 5 minutes vs. even 1 minute doesn’t lead to any better decisions than if I were simply to pick something right at that immediate second. It’s almost like I intuitively “know” what I should be doing.

Little decisions that are consciously put off for no good reason also invariably leads to procrastination. In this case, it’s not so much that procrastination is caused by analysis paralysis, but that it’s caused by one thing you should have done not being done at all. Because on action was taken, your motivation decreases. When motivation decreases, it’s harder to get it back up to previous levels.

So, what should you be doing right now? Right, you wanna read another blog post by me.

Unless, of course, you’re me. For some reason, even on projects I “know” I should be completing, I just can’t get myself to move forward. For example, who really wants to clean out a shelf in their closet? Just looking at the mess makes me want to sprint in the other direction faster than a lion chasing dinner on an African plain. First I’d have to actually go to the closet, then start pulling stuff out… then organizing all of said stuff… then putting everything in new places… ugh, it’s one big mess. And it’s boring, too.

Part of the problem that I (and many other people) have is that when we look at an unpleasant task or project, it shifts into this daunting, irritating mess. We all know that when we look at things in a negative light, it causes us to start labeling those things with negative assumptions. So, it doesn’t matter if the task is “clean out the entire closet” or “clean out two shelves in the closet” or “clean half a shelf in the closet,” the task still looks unpleasant.

How did I get around this problem?

The easiest thing I have found that helps me get around this problem is to do one simple task. One, simple, dirt easy task. Complete one task that’s so simple that it’d be foolish and silly for you to say “No, that’s too much work! I can’t do that.”

One simple task, that’s all it takes!

“One task?” you ask, “that’s all I need to do?” Yep. Here are some examples of doing one task on something that you might procrastinate with:

• Instead of checking all 150 emails in your inbox, check just one.
• Have a blog post you want to write, but you can’t figure out where to start? Type just one sentence – no more, no less.
• Want to start a new book but don’t have time for it? Read the first line of the first chapter, then put the book down.

I like to refer to these simple tasks as “mini-actions” – they’re things that are so obnoxiously simple, they’re like miniature action steps. It’s not quite doing an entire action step, but doing a very small sliver of one.

Write one bar of music. Put one book back on the bookshelf. Place one dish from the dishwasher back where it belongs. Simple simple simple.

Doing one mini-action step overcomes any inertia that might have built up from procrastination or analysis paralysis. Can’t figure out where to start? Do one simple thing that couldn’t possibly be any simpler. Your project looks too large that it scares you? Figure out the easiest task to do that’ll take the least amount of time and complete it.

The great thing about this method is that once you do one thing, you’ll feel compelled to do some more. Since one little task is already done, why not try another? And then another? You break the pattern that was holding you back all along.

What’s going to be your next simple task you’ll complete? Ah, that’s right. You’re going to read the first sentence of another one of my blog posts.

Timeboxing 101

Timeboxing is a relatively simple thing to learn. First, you take a task that you have, and then you figure out how long it’s going to take you to complete the task. You try your best to finish your task in that amount of time, trying not to go over your time limit by any amount.

For example, say you wanted to write a 500 word blog post on the joys of time management. You decide that this task would take you about 45 minutes to complete (meaning: write the post, edit it, and hit publish). You slot out some time to work on this task (say, from 2 to 2:45 in the afternoon) and off you go!

When you’re timeboxing up tasks, a general rule of thumb is to only use time amounts up to an hour. If you have a large task to complete, break it up into small tasks. Bigger projects can always be sliced up into smaller projects, which can be completed in a smaller amount of time. And always remember, the end result of timeboxing is a completed project.

The Greatness of Timeboxing

Almost all of the main reasons timeboxing is such a fabulous time management tool is that it helps you overcome very simple problems.

• It stops you from being a perfectionist. Limiting yourself to X amount of time to work on a task halts the need to constantly edit a work when it’s completed.
• It forces you to work on the meat of the project. If you only have an hour to complete something, your energy is going to be focused on getting real work done. You won’t succumb as often to distractions. You also won’t be paying attention to the bells and whistles of your work – stuff that really doesn’t matter.
• It forces you to ship a finished product. Perhaps the greatest benefit of timeboxing is the fact that the end goal is the completion of something. This is especially beneficial to creative people – because they would have finished a creative project, they’re able to immediately ship it out the door and into the hands of other people who are hungry for their work. Creative people hate deadlines because they feel like it stifles their creativity – but if they don’t have anything to show for their creativity, what good are their crafts?

The Perils of Timeboxing

Of course, all time management techniques have a few downsides that you may want to consider. Some of these downsides for timeboxing include the following.

• Not adequately estimating the time it’ll take you to finish a task. Timeboxing works best when you can guess how much time you’ll need to complete a task within a reasonable margin of error. Trying to condense a 4 hour project into 1 hour might cripple your end results. Sometimes it’s best to slightly overestimate the time needed to complete something, so you can give yourself a little breathing room.
• Trying to squeeze large creative projects into a small amount of time. Some creative work is going to take you a bit of time to do. Examples of this include cooking a gourmet meal, composing a song, or writing a very large blog post. There are just too many steps to complete before you can ship a final product. Fortunately, this can be remedied by simply breaking up your project into a series of smaller projects, as noted above.

Is timeboxing right for you?

Timeboxing success depends on how you implement the technique and what kind of personality you have. All people can be successful with it, however.

If you’re a naturally creative person, timeboxing might feel like it’s a restrictive constraint that does no good. You may feel as if it stifles your creativity. On the other hand, like I mentioned above, very creative people tend to not produce much real value in the eyes of other people because they’re constantly refining their works to an outrageous standard.  If nothing gets into the hands of other people, how can you share your value? This time management skill fixes that problem by forcing you to accept that a finished product is better than no product at all.

On the flip side of the coin, if you’re a naturally left brained person, timeboxing might feel like it fits extremely well into how you naturally think. Limiting the amount of time you take with a task forces you to complete it well in a short amount of time. That feels like a natural extension of your “no nonsense, let’s finish the task and get it over with” personality.

Like everything in personal development, time management skills are something that you develop over time. These techniques are something you can constantly tweak and experiment with in order to become more productive… and this includes timeboxing.

Asking specific questions is a lot like goal setting in a miniature way. When you set a goal that’s sharp and focused, you’re able to see past the finish line. The steps you need to take to cross that line become clear. If your goal is “I want to set better goals,” you’ll never get there. At best, you’ll be able to take a few random stabs in the dark and you may achieve some limited results that result in a few clearer goals. However, if you rewrote that goal as “I’m reading one new goal setting book and finding and applying five tips and tricks that I can immediately apply to my goal setting,” it’s clear to see what results you want to see after the goal is completed. It even lends itself to implying how you’re going to achieve the goal.

Because everybody loves music, I’m going to give you a musical example to illustrate this topic further. Don’t worry if you don’t have a musical bone in your body or you can’t play the piano – you’ll still understand and appreciate the message coming across.

Bad: “How come I can’t play this passage?”

I shouldn’t even need to give an explanation for why this is a bad question. This question is the farthest question from being clear. You get a few brownie points for being in the general ballpark (piano playing) and at least asking a question about something you’re having trouble with (can’t play something). If you asked this question to any piano teacher worth their weight in Mozart sheet music, they’ll immediately ask you to clarify.

Better: “Why do my fingers start to get tangled when I get to these measures, even though I’ve practiced this passage for hours on end?”

Okay, this is a little bit better. Now we know what the problem is (finger dexterity at a specific area in the music) and a piano teacher can start giving you methods to fix your problem. But you’re still not telling us your issue in a specific, focused way. While this question is leaps and bounds ahead of the former question, there are still some clarity issues that need to be resolved.

Best: “When I get to measures 34 to 36, I become finger tied as I’m not quite sure which fingers to use to achieve the most smooth playing in this passage while still sounding quiet and mysterious.”

The above question is like a piano teacher’s version of heaven. Now it’s clear what your main problem is (not sure of which fingers to use to play certain notes) and where the problem is located at (measures 34 to 36), and you’re also telling me what characteristics you want the final solution to have (must be able to also sound smooth, quiet, and mysterious).

The more crystal clear your questions are, the better results you’re going to have in the long run. Asking a vague question will almost always result in a vague answer. It’s like somebody asking you to identify a tall, thin object in thick fog. What you’re looking at could be a tree, a telephone pole, or even a lighthouse, but because you’re vision is cloudy, you’ll never quite know for sure. Remove the fog from your mind by being more precise. You want to be able to ask your questions to yourself or other people and be able to get an answer back that’s going to totally work for you, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

At the end of the day, the best questions always lead themselves to solutions, as you probably have guessed. A well crafted question leads itself to a beautifully sculpted answer. When you can see the answer to your question emerging in front of you, you no longer feel stuck; when you no longer feel stuck because you now know exactly what to do, you’re more likely to take immediate action. Action leads to a motivational increase – feeling motivated always feels good, which then leads you to asking better questions.

Lame questions are… well, lame! Don’t ask lame questions, and if you need any help… just ask around.