(Photo via Mirko Iannace)
New Year: While the world stands still, catch up, spring ahead. #quote #sunnylam (via Tumblr)
That was a quote that came to me in a coffee inspired moment.
It was also echoed by Chris Brogan who recently wrote a post reminding people that they should be using their time to catch up and put themselves ahead of the curve:
Lots of people use these days as throwaway days. Don’t. The time between now and the new year is a PERFECT time to get bigger things launched. Everyone else has let up on the pressure. The outside world is taking a breath. Do some stealth stuff. Do some bigger launch stuff. Work on some bigger-than-the-average-day stuff. Don’t phone it in. (Via Chris Brogan)
In short: I totally agree with him. You should too.
Get It Done in 2 Minutes Flat!
How often do you put things off that could be done today?
In David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophy if something can be done in 2 minutes then YOU DO IT. Its the classic 2 minute rule that I often tell certain clients. It’s a useful one for crushing the email blues.
And the best one of all – stop checking your email every 15 minutes.
Leave It To Later And It’ll Blow Up
This is something Tim Ferriss’ book the 4-Hour Work Week recently reminded me of. It’s called Parkinson’s Law after the quote from a funny essay by the guy with the same last name.
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
If you give yourself the 5 month deadline you’ll find things to do that never get you to the end of the big important project. So Helene Marie if you’re reading this that’s why the long essays your students write are worse than the one’s with the shorter deadline – students focus only on the best and barest essentials to survive your marking.
Can you afford to waste time on the not-as-important things in your job search? In your business? In your projects?
It’s a rhetorical question – answer it for yourself.
What If It Was Armageddon?
The best way to think of things is this:
If the world was going to end tomorrow – what would you do?
That may be the ultimate driver of what you set as your highest priority. It’s more extreme than what Tim Ferriss would say however for the people who’ve only got so long to live (i.e. the walking dead, the diabetics, the cystic fibrosis, the Parkinson’s in the world) it’s particularly telling.
Do I have a deadline? One that’s shorter than yours very likely.
The man who has nothing to lose, nothing to live for is the most dangerous one of all. That’s how America creates suicide bombers, that’s also how the amazing people out there stand out going from nothing to the stars.
In Short
You can use things like GTD, Parkinson’s Law and the “end of the world” to help guide your compass. You’ve only got so much time on this world and in the next year – use it wisely.
So how about it?
What would you do if the world was going to end tomorrow? In 2011? In the New Year? Or the mythic 2012?
What are you going to do NOW?
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