The Common Mistake with Getting Things Done: Lack of Preparation
It’s often frustrating getting things done, especially one-off ventures that we have never done before or long and complex operations. The desire to have things done often generates a lot of negative emotions of varying degrees. We need to put off our wish fulfillment or else we become easily distracted by other pleasures that are easier to fulfill in the moment. This can be done through adjusting our expectations of instant gratification and through accepting that fulfillment comes at the end of a road called Preparation.
As a metaphor for the impact of preparation upon getting things done, I think of it like creating a fire. The preparation is the kindling, the carefully broken down, small pieces of dry wood that can catch fire once the spark of desire turned into intention catches it alight. Care must be taken to ensure that the initial pieces of wood used are capable of burning. It is almost impossible for a match to set fire to huge tree trunk and such an expectation will lead to failure. Care must also be taken to shield the fire against the wind of expectation that can blow out a fire immediately if those expectations are too strong. Instead of expectation a small draft of anticipation of a beneficial, but somewhat unknown, result allows the spark of intention to act upon the prepared flammable materials.
As the fire begins to burn the intention is transformed into capability as larger and large pieces of wood can be put upon the fire and the strength of the fire (in this case the process and the momentum of the process) can consume them. If the fire is not fed with more prepared wood then it will die down to a flicker and eventually extinguish. To light the fire again without prepared material will be to no avail. The kindling and the wood must be prepared once again otherwise the effort put into lighting the fire will be wasted and you will sit there feeling cold and miserable and wondering why you can’t get a decent fire lit. When it’s cold in the morning you don’t want to have to scratch around and find kindling and wood, damp from the dew. You will be grateful that you prepared more kindling and wood whilst you had the chance the day before and kept it dry and undercover ready to be lit at a moments notice.
It doesn’t matter how energized and motivated you feel to get started and do things. If you have no fuel prepared to burn in your burgeoning fire or you expect the impossible by hoping that a single match will set alight an entire tree then your energy and motivation will fizzle out. You might be left thinking, “Man, I’m terrible at starting a fire and keeping it burning.” whereas in actual fact your fire starting abilities and ability to keep it burning might be top notch. It could just be that your lack of preparation to support the fire once it’s underway is letting you down.
Frustration comes from wanting a result right now. It is upon this point that we judge ourselves and produce good or bad emotions as a result. The preparation to do something usually makes up a huge proportion of the effort needed to actually finish a task and deliver a result. We tend not to judge our results from our preparations towards that point of fulfillment. We can thus keep preparation as a ‘desire neutral’ activity and that allows us to get on with preparation without too much fuss and bother. We can adjust our attitude to accept the process of preparation as a necessary part of fulfilling a desire and we can defer judging results and generating emotions until we actually fulfill the task.
Without preparation we tend to launch ourselves into doing things only to come up against barriers to progress very quickly. As soon as we hit a point where we find in impossible to move forward we tend to get disappointed and look for easier means to provide instant gratification and good feelings. Preparation is the vital art of providing the raw material that can be worked upon by the processes and competencies that we have already developed.
Preparation is largely the process of breaking things down to a level so that nothing will be ‘impossible to do in the moment’ once you actually carry out all of the work that delivers the final result. Generally speaking you need to break down the furthest those things that you are highly unfamiliar with. These are the things that will give you the most trouble and hence are the biggest sources for procrastination. Key to that preparation is identifying in advance the likely points of difficulty that will bring action to a sudden stop. Through identifying them in advance we can attempt to solve or to circumvent the problem before we arrive at it.
For example, if one of your tasks is ‘Change the oil on the car’ and you are a car mechanic who does this day in and day out then that description on the list of things to do is enough. You don’t need any more detail because you know the full process for doing this and have the full competence for doing it. However, if you have never done this before then you will find many problems to deal with. You have to research the method, buy the tools and equipment, ask for advice, go through each step very slowly and carefully and so on. The level of preparation is dependent upon your familiarity and level of competence in performing the task.
Sometimes we must finish a frustratingly large amount of preparation before starting something but the reality is that the problem solving that occurs through the process of preparation is something that we will have to do anyway if we want to make progress. Adopting the practice of thorough preparation allows us to accept this reality and to deal with it in a sensible manner. If we don’t do it then we will come to a point where progress is impossible at that moment. This will lead to negative emotions and a desire to do something easier. This leads to procrastination and a delay in getting on with the problem solving and making further progress.
Acceptance of the need and of the benefit of carrying out thorough preparation has proven a key factor in increasing my own levels of personal productivity. The next time you feel frustrated in getting things done ask yourself whether it’s because you’re no good at making fires or whether it’s because this time around you didn’t prepare the fuel for the fire properly.
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[Picture: Chas Redmond]
#1 - Permalink gsdsmiles April 8th, 2008 at 8:10 amHi Nick
Again, well done, man! You know the old phrase….
Success is the friendship formed when preparation shakes hands with opportunity.
My using that phrase as a mantra to propel me has always bore succulent fruit!
gsdsmiles
#2 - Permalink Linda April 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pmHi Nick,
“Sometimes we must finish a frustratingly large amount of preparation before starting something but the reality is that the problem solving that occurs through the process of preparation is something that we will have to do anyway if we want to make progress.”
Creative problem solving is a vital part of preparation IMO. If we can anticipate in advance what we’ll be dealing with in a situation or process, then it will be less of a stumbling block than if it comes up unexpectedly.
A book that reinforced the skills in problem solving is “Jack’s Notebook” — it teaches creative problem solving, a fundamental business (and life) skill. It is an innovative book and a real page-turner because it’s written as a business fable.
Linda
#3 - Permalink admin April 11th, 2008 at 8:19 amHi Linda,
Thanks for adding a useful contribution. I have not come across CPS (Creative Problem Solving) as a specific method so I checked it out on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....ng_Process
In my own life I have found that the most stunning problem solving occurred when I realized that I was responding to a symptom and not the cause of a problem. Finding the root cause of a problem and devising ways to eliminate it or to manage it more effectively often removes, or extremely curtails, the symptom and the need for a response to it.
In addition, most people get fixated on achieving a result that they want rather than examining the process that leads to the result. Coming up with creative solutions makes no difference if you don’t also focus on what it takes to implement the solution.
Thanks for your comment!
Nick
#4 - Permalink Steve Mac August 9th, 2009 at 7:47 amHi Nick,
“In addition, most people get fixated on achieving a result that they want rather than examining the process that leads to the result.”
With the comment above combined to ‘frustration’,… in my experience the ‘expectation’ of a result is normally implemented by management or superiors whom know little of the tasks required nor providing the tools or time to achieve the preperation,… leaving the problems and the ‘frustrations’ with the one delegated to the function.
When the ‘expectations’ are not met within a particular time or budget, stress & confrontation occurs and the inherent ‘frustrations’ incurred through insufficient or un-willing support, are then seen as an emotional outburst from the task-doer - which in fact ‘a reality check’, to those in charge, it is a ‘cry for help’,rather than a defense of ones competency or excuses for adverse circumstance.
I have seen and experienced many situations with upper-management or directors,… who place these (mainly un-necessary) stresses on their underlings, when they want or ’sell’ as an analogy, a FORMULA-ONE service or ‘podium’ result, but (whom knowningly or through their own incompetence) limit or constrain the ‘individual, team or budget’ to FORMULA-FORD.
Some managers/directors who are ‘facilitators’ and who know their area of work - i.e. experienced individuals in their trade that move into managerial positions, are more astute in these circumstances, and at least do not see exhibited ‘frustrations’ as a negative outburst or confrontation - will, when push comes to shove, admit the disparity between FORMULA ONE (expectation/result) and FORMULA FORD. (The reality of what is achieveable under the circumstances)
Steve Mac
#5 - Permalink admin August 10th, 2009 at 4:33 amHi Steve,
I sympathise greatly. I’ve spent years in the corporate world as a project manager and I’m determined to escape it. The results expected are always set up to be impossible to achieve and it’s demoralising. It seems that they refuse to afford to do it properly the first time but are always obliged to pay to do it properly the second time in order to make it work. It’s madness. I guess they want to run everything lean, but if you’re too lean you have to use up muscle to survive and you spend far too much time shivering uncontrollably.
#6 - Permalink Steve Mac August 12th, 2009 at 1:15 pmHi Nick,
Ditto on the corporate world - I also spent quite some time as a technology consultant to companies, so have seen these forms of mal-function from both sides,… that of “lean”, which is generally a ‘whittling-down’ process, or ‘minimalistic’ in start-up, and also as a novo-business strategy.
By this ‘novo’ aspect, companies no longer start small, have good products or services and grow due to demand from these.
Instead, companies bid for, or proclaim they can provide a product, process or service, and by instigating statistics (such as Pareto Anylis or SPC)they can determine that only 20% of any product, service or process, will issue problems,… hence they gain in the 80% of non-issue items,… swallowing upto 20% losses. The money is already in the bank, and the top-level management gain the bonuses leaving the underlings to pick-up the pieces.
The former(old)business model has ‘longevity’ built-in, the ‘novo’ is short-term with a focus on the $$$$ bottom line.
Steve Mac