What Are You Waiting For?

Adding tasks and projects to my to do list this week, I realised one of my existing projects was something I had been putting off. I had been saying to myself for months “once I have tided up my folders, and I’m up to date on my to do list, I can really get stuck into the task and can move it forward”.

What then popped into my head was “you will never get started if you are waiting for the perfect moment”.

There is never going to be a time when I am up to date with my to do list or have tidied everything up in my folders and emails. The only way this will happen is either time stand stills for everyone but me and I continue to work, moving things forward without interruption, or if I have: no meetings, no interruptions and no emails.

Neither of these are ever going to happen.

You may have heard people say, “we are waiting for the right time to have children” or “we are waiting for the right time to get a dog/move house/move jobs/start our business/do the garden/get fit/lose weight” etc. There is likely never going to be a right time. You will always want to save more money, have more space, have a more interesting/better paid job.

I’m not sure why we do this, could it partly be a self sabotage as we know we will never get there? Is it because we want everything to be perfect or clear before we jump into it? Or is it because we feel we wont have the capacity to do it if we started now?

Thinking about it, the world we live in is not slowing down, the longer you leave it, the likelihood is you will not start. Perhaps you need to think about what is actually holding you back from starting. Lack of money – understandable? Think about what amount saved would be acceptable for you to move forward? Is it doable? Is it realistic? If you are looking to start your own business, what do you need to have to start?

They say it takes approximately £200,000 to raise a child up to18 years old in the UK. If you are putting it off to save the money, what portion would you want to save? A quarter? Half? All? For the average person – this isn’t going to be easy, having a lump sum might be great, but you wouldn’t need it all at once anyway, so it may be more beneficial to not wait.

Having a child or starting your business are big life changing examples, so let’s focus on typical everyday projects we are trying to get off the ground rather than huge lifechanging decisions.

Whether it is writing a policy, updating a document or planning for the way you are working going forward. Start.

As hard as it is – start. Get on and do it. Whether you have the luxury of free time, resources or not.

Stop procrastinating and waiting for the right time. That time will never come. There will always be something you find to prevent you from moving forward.

But when someone says “just start”, what does it mean when you have no idea how? Your idea of starting could be completely different from my idea. Think about what it mean for you.

Starting really means to take a first step. For example, open a spreadsheet and write down what your task is – start with the name, then move onto what the component parts are of the task? Create a list you can then expand on to create a project plan. Helping you to map out what you have to do.

As I have said in previous posts, chunk down your tasks and also your time. Start with 15 minutes to help get you started and lose the fear of what to do. Finding a way to work that suits your style, wants and needs for your project is important. You will likely get into a flow and go over time, but little and often could be beneficial to you. It reduces the feeling of overwhelm and stops you from getting stuck or distracted. Slow and steady wins the race as they say.

This week, if you do nothing else, start. Take 10 minutes to either write down everything in your head about the project to then help you make a plan or start writing your document or policy. Do what suits you. Put 10 minutes in each day and by the end of the week you will have completed 50 minutes. Now that is progress as it is 50 more minutes than you did last week.

For me this week, my plan is to start the project I have been putting off at work. I know my first step is going to be a mind dump of everything about it onto a document and from there I will unpick it and create a project plan.

All the best with ‘starting’. You never know it could be easier than you think.

Have a great week, thank you for reading and look after you.

Take care. Love Emma xx