[Your aspirations going up in smoke once again?]

Getting off track with getting things done is incredibly easy because so many other things exist that are easier to do in the moment. In order to protect yourself from getting easily distracted and to prevent yourself from feeling the low key negative emotions that tend to spark off procrastination then take care to manage yourself well by avoiding these common mistakes:

1. Insufficient preparation - Even doing some of the easiest things requires some level of preparation. For more difficult things it takes a lot of preparation. Instead of turning away from things because they seem ‘impossible to do at this moment,’ think about how to break the objective down into the process steps that will take you from start through to finish. Focus on the first step and do whatever it takes to make the start of this totally possible to do right now - even if it’s as simple as asking a question and writing out the response.
2. Not making things sufficiently easy to do - This harks back to the first point about lack of preparation. Ultimately, we only ever get anything done because we have made it possible (i.e. easy enough) for us to do right now. This vital truth lies at the heart of every momentary decision about whether to do productive and useful things or whether to bunk off and do something even easier instead. Focusing on this one point about making the seemingly difficult things that you want to do so easy that do something else seems harder (or simply a dumb option) truly lies at the heart of developing outstanding personal productivity and of getting things done and accumulating the small advances that in reality deliver the results that you want.
3. Unproven processes - Most of us who take an interest in personal development do so because we have reached certain personal limits that mean that we find ourselves unable to fulfill the objectives that we desire. Knowing this we seek out new processes for getting things done. Unfortunately, new processes require a large measure of learning, understanding, experimentation and experience before we can begin to rely upon them as core competencies. Factor this aspect of true personal development into what you do. If you expect to rely upon weak abilities very early on then you will often end up disappointed. It doesn’t mean that the process is necessarily wrong or that you have proven no good. It more likely means that you have attempted to rely upon something that is not yet fit for purpose (if you ride a foal and expect it to carry you like a horse you’ll probably end up with a dead foal. How many dead foals are in your personal history?)
4. Unproven products - Closely related to unproven processes, again many of us seek to create new results (or products). Again, these products require research and development to create and to grow so that we (and others) can depend upon them reliably. These products will prove inconsistent until they have been developed to a level or robust functionality. If we seek to depend upon them before they reach this point then we will end up disappointed.
5. No processes, standards and guidelines in place - Making decisions can often prove difficult, especially when we find ourselves short on experience for how to create the result that we want and also when we do things that we rarely carry out. By developing and recording effective processes in detail we create the vital “How To” knowledge that delivers the result that we want in the most effective method currently known to us personally. By having standards in place we know what to aim for with each step of the process so that we not only deliver the end result but also do so the level of expectation that we have for that result. By creating guidelines for uncertain or judgmental issues we prepare ourselves in advance to guide ourselves along the route that has the greatest probability of getting (or giving) what we want. Without these things we can quickly become unstuck because we break our forward momentum by having to stop and labor over the decision of which way to go next.
6. Mixing tasks that don’t mix together well - Our brains tend to work most effectively (producing high quality results in the quickest possible time) when we can focus on doing one particular type of task at a time. Once we gear ourselves up for this and start making progress we can continue for very long periods of high productivity. The things that interrupt this flow are 1) a lack of preparation to keep feeding the process once it has started, i.e. we run out of the ‘raw material’ to process and come to a halt 2) having to weigh up decisions on how to proceed along the way instead of having clearly defined processes and guidelines already in place so that no halts to progress occur 3) attempting to carry out a mix of processes at the same time, such as creating an article whilst simultaneously attempting to write it. For example, the process of creativity requires a different mode of thinking than that required for something more mundane, such as describing something through writing. When you mix such things up together you get a start/stop progression that proves frustrating and ineffective to do.
7. Overwhelm - Sometimes our own personal enthusiasm or else the obligations given to us by external factors can lead to us being loaded up with more and more stuff to do. This means that we need to make more effective use of our time in order to deal with the increased workload and that’s a challenge to our organizational abilities. On top of that, if the new objectives require a lot of learning, understanding, experimentation and experience before we can rely upon them then we end up depending upon unproven processes and so on top of the perceived time limitations we also find our very competencies challenged. That’s a recipe for feeling unconfident and uncertain about how best to act. To counter this we need to accept these difficulties and make a judgement. We either do everything to lower standards than those that we would really like (because we don’t have the real capability to do them within the given time limit) or else we decide to let things occur over a longer than desired time period in order to get things done to the standards that we desire. Attempting to have both will likely lead to failure.
8. Solving the wrong problem - Once we start setting desires and expectations, standards and processes for ourselves we start to build momentum in a certain direction. I can then become easy to get fixated upon the results of these processes because they take up so much time energy and focus. If we begin to feel frustration because we do so well at getting things done but seem to do so badly at creating the circumstances that we want or the final conditions that we want then it can often be because we are actually solving the wrong problem. We set off in a direction with the hope and expectation that it would take us where we want to end up only to find ourselves making great progress but in the wrong direction. Ouch! That hurts. If you prefer the new direction then reset your desires to accept this turn of events. If not, then accept that you are off track and guide yourself back onto the right track.
9. Failing to adapt when circumstances change - Sometimes new events occur that undermine the effectiveness of what we are in the process of doing. Sometimes new information, new methods or new technology makes our current approach to doing things ineffective and sometimes almost irrelevant. Once we have things going well we get used to our methods and attached to them but continuing with outmoded approaches will bring us difficulty in the long-term.
10. Unrealistic desires and expectations - Nothing kills the drive to get things done quicker or more effectively than seeking to do the impossible. Whilst pleasant fantasies can give a reason to aspire to new levels of ability we must take care to remain realistic about the probabilities of such events occurring and of the real level of effort needed to fulfill such desires. In addition we must take care about the uncontrollable aspects surrounding such aspirations. If we expect too many things over which we have little or not control simply to fall into place then we will, more often than not, end up disappointed.

The next 10 common mistakes are covered in the follow up post

Are you making these 20 common mistakes with getting things done? Part Two