Do you ever find that you’ll have a project due a week from now, and you won’t touch it until the day before its due? Or you’ll have a bill to pay or a call to make but you won’t do it until it’s near the deadline or someone has reminded you how important it is?
Many people would classify this as procrastination. Procrastination is such a negative word. It’s far from a motivational term and really can make the situation worse when brought into play.
But that’s not what it is, in most situations. There are times when we’ll avoid doing something simply “just cause”. That cause is usually our dislike of the task or something that’s not enjoyable to do.
The reason these tasks are put off until the last minute is ordinarily because there are no restraints. No specific limitations.
An author by the name of Twyla Tharp wrote a book a few years ago that I bought. It was called The Creative Habit. I read it once and haven’t read it since. She, being an artist, encouraged the readers to start with a blank canvas, a blank mind.
I think that is one of the worst things you can do, and is the reason that we put off work until the deadline comes knocking on our doors. A blank piece of paper is useless in most situations. A piece of paper with a problem written on it is jackpot.
When you understand and state exactly what has to be done, not only have you identified the problem that needs to be solved, you’ve also created a strategy for how you plan to solve it.
That strategy involves restraints and limitations that serve as guides to direct you towards your goal: the completion of the task, a solution to the problem.
Being an adman, I’ll give you an example that I’ve experienced, but it can be applied to any task at hand.
A client comes to you and says, “I need an ad to introduce our new product.”
That generalized statement leaves you high and dry. By asking the client what the objective of the ad is, who the target audience is, what the product’s unique selling proposition is, how we can support that USP, and why the target should believe us, we’re able to develop a quick and simple strategy that gives us so much more to play with.
The client’s restraints result in a strategy that directs the ideas we generate. By asking other questions about the limitations of the ad itself, we can learn that its a full-page newspaper ad of such and such dimensions, black plus one colour, must contain certain contact information, a map, their logo, will be distributed in Miami and Orlando, and we have 2 days to finish it.
The time restraint itself limits us to the resources we can use. There’s no time for a photo shoot, the content will have to be written today, mock-ups of the layout will need to be sent to the client by end of day, and we’ll have to have it approved by 5:00 pm tomorrow.
That example was tied into the ad industry, but you can apply it to your business plan, your company’s logo, your pitch to venture capitalists, etc…….almost any situation.
Those limitations and restraints create enough pressure to immediately kick you into gear without bringing you near breaking point, which usually occurs when you’re trying to tackle something last minute or with a blank piece of paper.
See if you can apply those questions and different restraints and limitations to a task or challenge that you’ve been putting off. I’d love to hear if and how it works out for you.
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