Can you over plan?

I could do with some advice on my planning. I seem to make 'to do' list after list and I end up doing more planning than actually doing.

Is there a fool proof way to make us self employed people do more than we plan? It's all about Psychology of course, but the simplest things can make people's life easier.

I'm self employed. I find that if I don't over plan and make lists to stay focused. I tend to get side tracked with other projects and nothing gets done.

Maybe your to do's are too big and that's why you procrastinate. Break your tasks down, create a list with your daily tasks at the evening before (easier to calm down after work because you don't think about what you should do tomorrow)

I'm also challenging myself by stopping time with a clock for the tasks on my list. Over the time I set shortcuts on my keyboard to beat my own records.

Put the hardest task at the beginning of your list (search on Google for "eat the frog"). Switch between creative tasks (where you can lean back and listen to music while you're working) and task where you have to be 100% focused = feels a lot better to have variety at work.

Additionally, make a break every hour for 5 minutes. Set rewards to stay motivated, eg. "If I'm done I'll order a pizza, play video games etc."

At the end you have to know that most things we do are based on habits. For the first weeks you need a lot of discipline (eg. to do your tasks). That's hard but after 30 days at least it becomes a habit. You've created momentum and don't need discipline anymore to get your sh*t done.

There are tons of YouTube video where people explaining it much deeper.

Conclusion: Success is based on personality. Develop your personality actively, every day.

Pinger030 said:

Maybe your to do's are too big and that's why you procrastinate. Break your tasks down, create a list with your daily tasks at the evening before (easier to calm down after work because you don't think about what you should do tomorrow)

I'm also challenging myself by stopping time with a clock for the tasks on my list. Over the time I set shortcuts on my keyboard to beat my own records.

Additionally, make a break every hour for 5 minutes. Set rewards to stay motivated, eg. "If I'm done I'll order a pizza, play video games etc."

At the end you have to know that most things we do are based on habids. For the first weeks you need a lot of discipline (eg. to do your tasks). That's hard but after 30 days at least it becomes a habit. You've created momentum and no more need discipline to get your sh*t done.

There are tons of YouTube video where people explaining it much deeper.

Conclusion: Success is based on personality. Develop your personality actively, every day.

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Great suggestion! Do you mind to share some of the links that you find effective in their explanations?

Shinjiru Int said:

Great suggestion! Do you mind to share some of the links that you find effective in their explanations?

Click to expand...

Can't give you suggestions because I'm from Europe and watch videos in my native language mostly, so you won't understand anything. But there are tons of english videos about this topic. It's so basic that you can listen to everyone.

+1 On more project management techniques. I like the idea of breaking the project down into components. There's a good site by Miguel Grinberg (Can't post links)that has a good blog about PM.

Project Management For Dummies
If you wanted to implement the simplest approach, you can manage your project by just making a list of the tasks you have to do to complete it, and keeping track of which tasks are done and which tasks are still to do. When you finish a task you just remove it from the list and then look for another task to continue. If at any time you realize you missed a task, you immediately go back to your list and add it, before you forget. Pen and paper is all you need for this.

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I was able to reorganize a 30-person team running all the analytics and data for a multibillion dollar corporation by enacting a project management process called Agile (or Scrum).

We used a stripped-down version of it, but the gist was:

• Each project had a color on a post-it note, divided into tasks and placed on a white board.
• White board is separated out vertically into team members (good if you have VA's doing work), and horizontally into Defined (known but not started), In Progress, and Completed.
• The board is cleared and restarted every two weeks.

Come to think of it, just use Trello.

ScreamingMidget said:

I could do with some advice on my planning. I seem to make 'to do' list after list and I end up doing more planning than actually doing.

Is there a fool proof way to make us self employed people do more than we plan? It's all about Psychology of course, but the simplest things can make people's life easier.

Click to expand...

The art of stress free productivity is a martial art.

You should not overplan anymore than you'd overtrain for a boxing match. David Allen says so.

watch this video:
read this book: http://transhumanism-russia.ru/docu...one_-_The_Art_Of_Stress-Free_Productivity.pdf

basic system explained in minutes:
That's the system I follow everyday.

I lie everything out thinking yeah, I've got it all planned. Ha! I tend to over plan and spread myself way too thin and in doing this I tend to get little accomplished. The feeling of being overwhelmed hits, I kick off my shoes push my laptop aside and say I'll do better tomorrow.
Here's the thing I think I have too big of an appetite for my capabilities to get it all done. I have a dozen novels I'm writing as well as short stories I plan on selling. How does one stop and have a life outside of what I do? I have many ask me that and I seriously don't know. My writing is my life. Id really love to find that balance to write and live a normal life haahah