Matthew Hussey argues that setting pathetically small daily goals prevents overwhelm and builds consistency. Reading a few pages daily keeps a book club manageable; tiny targets get you started and may lead to enjoying the work.
Matthew Hussey here with Love Life. I want to talk to you today about having really low expectations for what you achieve in a day and how that's a really good thing. This is counterproductive, or at least it sounds counterintuitive, I should say. We often think that if we start a day by thinking about just how much we want to achieve in that day and we focus on just how much we're going to get done today, that somehow is going to lead us to massive productivity. But the truth is that that very often it leads to overwhelm and overwhelm leads us to short circuit and then do nothing. The thing that I have been focused on recently, which I can't get out of my head, I'm sort of obsessed with this concept right now, is the idea of having almost a pathetic minimum level of something that I have to do just to get into it. I always know my safety net is regularity. My safety net is consistency. I can actually get a pathetically small amount done on a task in a day if I am consistent with it. If I'm not consistent with something, I have to do an enormous amount on that. I mean, I have a book club that I do for the women who have been on my retreat program. And in this book club, I have to read a book every, let's say, four weeks. If I leave it till the last weekend. I'm now forced to read a book in a week or a book in a day, which isn't always comfortable, depending on the book and how interesting this book is. If I read five pages a day or 10 pages a day, this book is easy. It doesn't matter how difficult the book is, the book becomes easy because 10 pages a day is not an awful lot for me to have to do. Consistency will save you. Regularity will save you. Putting something off will doom you to a truly depressing torment of an enormous workload. An enormous amount to do. So my advice to you today is this. Think about what it is you're trying to get done and stop thinking about all of the stuff that everyone is sending you that they want you to get done. I'm talking about the things that are important to you, the things that you want to get done, the things that you know will move your life forward if you get them done. I want you today to focus on a pathetically small quota for what you're going to get done on that thing and stick to it no matter what. Do not let yourself off the hook. Make it, in fact, make that amount of work that you're going to do on that project so small that it's almost embarrassing that you almost would. You would be embarrassed to say it out loud to someone because they think you were pathetic for setting yourself such a low target on that thing. But get yourself to do it, and two things will happen. One, you'll have started the process and tomorrow you get to do that again. Even if you don't up the quota, you get to do it again. The second thing that will happen is by starting the process, by getting into it, you will start to open up new pathways in your brain for how to do that task, how to achieve it, what you would do next, you'll start actually learning what you would do if you spent another five minutes on that task or another 10. You'll start realizing what the next part of the process is. You may even, dare I say it, start to enjoy it. So set yourself a pathetic requirement for today. That's my mission to you. And shoot me a message on Facebook and let me know how you got on. Leave me a comment. I'm on facebook.com coachmathewhussey I will see you there, Sam.
