Start Small and Take Small Steps to Work Past Your Fears and to Your Goals [Productivity]

Big goals and big projects often require big steps, but being daunted by all that work is normal. You may not have time in the day to get everything you want done, or maybe you have a lot of prep-work to get off to a solid start. Don't get stuck doing nothing because you're afraid you won't do enough, start small and takes steps so incrimental you'll never have trouble completing them.

The principle of working in small, easily-completed bites isn't anything new, but when applied to your to-dos it can be a powerful tool. Kaizen, or Japanese for "improvement," is often applied in business (and productivity!) as the concept of continuous, incrimental improvement. When it comes to your to-do list, it means do small things incrementally as progress towards your goal?things so small that they're easy and you aren't caught up in hang-ups or excuses for why you're not working. Aditya Ravi Shankar, sharing his experiences after reading a book about Kaizen, explains it like this:

When the task is so small that it seems almost meaningless, the subconscious mind offers almost no resistance to it, since it doesn't consider it a threat, and you find it easy to do.

After a few days of achieving little successes, the subconscious mind starts enjoying the task so much, it automatically starts wanting more. While before one minute of the task seemed like enough, you now find yourself doing the task for longer periods of time ? first five minutes, then ten minutes and then eventually hours.

The idea is similar to the way our own Adam Pash gets things done even when he doesn't feel like it, but it goes past getting started. Kaizen is most useful when you're struggling to keep going, or can't think of a next action that isn't a ton of effort. You can even apply it to your chores by cleaning in short bursts or exercising once a week if you have trouble sticking to a routine.

The Kaizen Way - How to Get Past Hesitation, Fear, and Laziness to Achieve Your Goals

Photo by English106.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/-270KH5Ku7o/start-small-and-take-small-steps-to-push-past-your-fears-and-work-to-your-goals

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