There are a slew of popular books and systems, from favorites of mine such as Getting Things Done
to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
to the Now Habit
and more, all designed to get us more productive and effective.
But getting things done is really about one thing, and one thing only: overcoming the resistance to doing what we need to do.
OK, I would add a couple more steps to that, to ensure that we’re managing our tasks correctly:
1. Have all our projects and tasks stored in an external system (out of our heads), such as a to-do list or lists.
2. Pick the tasks and projects that are most important to work on.
3. Overcome the resistance to actually doing those important tasks.
And I would submit it’s the last step that’s the most important (although I wouldn’t ignore the other two). Unfortunately, because we’re not very good at overcoming resistance, we procrastinate on this third step by fiddling with the external system — the tools we use to organize our tasks, coming up with new and better systems, tweaking them until they’re near perfect, and so on.
That’s Resistance.
As Stephen Pressfield writes in his excellent book on this topic, The War of Art
:
“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.
What’s keeping us from sitting down is Resistance.”
The War of Art is all about Resistance, not only for writers and other artists, but for anyone trying to pursue their dreams or become what they’re meant to be. I highly recommend it. This, of course, is also a topic that is central to Zen Habits: overcoming Resistance to create new and better habits, to find happiness and simplicity, to do what you need to do and love to do.
I fight Resistance every single day, and I thought you might be interested in some of the ways I fight and beat Resistance, daily.
1. Become aware. The problem usually is that we don’t think about Resistance. We don’t understand it or even realize it’s there most of the time. We just think, “Oh, I better straighten out my desk … or get my to-do lists in order” or we get distracted by something on the web, or we feel that we have to check our email, or we’re just going to watch this one TV show, or any of a limitless amount of distractions.
Combat this by realizing that you are facing Resistance. Once you become aware of it, you can fight it, and beat it. It can be difficult to become more aware, but the key is to focus on it for a couple of days. Print out the words “Defeat Resistance” and put it somewhere visible as you work. That will help remind you to be aware of Resistance. Every time you do something that isn’t the most important thing you could be doing right now, be aware of what you’re doing.
2. Become a pro. This is the main technique that Pressfield outlines in The War of Art: combating Resistance by turning pro. The professional, unlike the amateur, comes to work ready to work. He’s doing it for a living (and loves what he does) and knows that as long as he shows up and starts working, the rest will come. Approach the work like a pro, and you’ll get the work done.
3. Be very clear, and focus. Before you start the day, be very clear about what you want to accomplish. You won’t be able to finish 10 major projects, but maybe you can finish one important project, or at least move it along to a certain point. Set three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Once you have those things defined, you’ve got to focus on them to the exclusion of all else (at least, during your prime work time). Do them first. Focus, finish, then move on to the smaller tasks you need to complete today. If you find yourself being lured to do something that’s not on that short list of three things, bring yourself back and focus.
4. Clear away distractions. Don’t spend a lot of time on this, because eliminating distractions can be a distraction itself. Instead, take one minute: close your email program and IM program and turn off all notifications. Shut down the Internet if at all possible. Close all programs except the one you need to do the important task in front of you. Clear your desk quickly (stuff everything in a drawer or something — you can organize it later) and turn off the phones if possible. Put on headphones or alert your coworkers (or family, if you’re at home) that you’re not to be disturbed for the next hour (or however long you plan to work on this task). Then get to work.
5. Have a set time and place. Make your first important task a daily appointment. For me, that’s writing. I always start the day with a writing task (such as writing this post, for example). For you, that might be different. Have a set start time, and possibly a set ending time — you’ll have to see what works for you, but the important thing is the set starting time. And when that time comes, you have to start. No exceptions.
6. Know your motivation. Why are you doing this? Why is this task important? What is it working towards? And how important is that end goal to you? Why is it important? You need to know these things to build up the motivation to overcome Resistance.
7. Just start. In the end, all the tips in the world won’t make as much a difference as this simple (and timeless) instruction. Just sit down and start. Feel Resistance to doing that? There’s no way to overcome it than to just start. Reading more about Resistance won’t help. Going to an online Procrastinator’s Forum won’t help. Working on your to-do lists won’t help. Only doing actually helps. And the only way to do something is to just start.
So how do you start, when you feel resistance? You just start. Feeling the need to do something else? Stop yourself from getting distracted. Remind yourself what you need to be doing, and why. Sit down and the set time and place. And just start.
For me, that means opening up a blank text file and writing the title of whatever I’m writing. Then I start brainstorming and outlining ideas. This gets me over the initial Resistance. And once I’ve started on that, I can usually get into the flow. But the important thing is to get started.
So stop reading this. And just start!
Update: See another great article on this topic just published over at LifeDev.net: Keeping Focus While Beating Back Distractions.
What may be done at any time will be done at no time. - Scottish Proverb
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译文:
7大步克服阻力，真正做实事
现在有一系列的书啊系统什么的都被设计来让我们提高效率，我喜欢的有《做事》，《高效率人们的7大习惯》以及《现代人习性》等。
但我们真正要做的一件事，只要做的一件事就是：克服做我们要做之事时的阻力。
好吧，我会多加一些步骤，这样我们能更好地完成任务：
1.把所有的项目和任务存储在一个外来系统（除了我们的大脑以外）中，例如“待办事项”或备忘录。
2.选出最重要的任务和项目。
3.克服在做重要任务时的阻力。
我强调最后一条是最重要的（但我不会忽略前两条）。不幸的是，因为我们不能很好地克服阻力，我们只能通过摆弄外来系统——用来组织我们的任务的工具，产生新的更好的系统，折腾它们直到接近完美等等，来在第三步上拖延时间。
那就是阻力。
就如斯蒂芬·普莱斯菲尔德在他的不朽杰作《艺术的战争》中写道：“有一个秘密只有真正的作家才知道，其他所谓“作家”是不知道的，那就是：写的部分不是最难的，最难的是坐下来写。而阻止我们坐下来写的就是阻力。”
《艺术的战争》一书讲的就是阻力，不仅包括作家和其他艺术家的阻力，还包括那些追梦人和努力追究目标的人阻力。我很欣赏这本书。当然，这也是《禅习性》的中心话题：克服阻力，培养新的好习惯，返璞归真，随性而为。
每一天我都在跟阻力作斗争，我想你们或许会对我在日常生活中对抗甚至打败阻力的方法很感兴趣。
1. 知彼。通常，问题就是我们没考虑到阻力上。大多数时候，我们不懂甚至压根没有意识到阻力。我们只会想：“哦，我最好休息一下……或是整理一下我的待办事项”，或者我们被网上的什么东西分散了注意力，或者觉得要收发一下电邮，或是打算看一场电视节目，或者是其他任何娱乐。
要与其对抗，你必须意识到你在面对阻力。一旦你意识到这一点，你就能与其对抗并战胜它。想要更加知彼是很困难的，但是你可以一连几天都把注意力集中在它身上。打印有“打败阻力”的条幅，并且在工作时把它放在可见的地方。这样就提醒你随时注意阻力，让你在做一些不是当前最重要的事时，意识到自己在做什么。
2. 成为专业人士。《艺术的战争》一书的大纲着重介绍的方法就是：成为专业人士，对抗阻力。专业的，不像业余爱好者，会做好准备才开始工作。他以此为生（而且热爱自己的工作）同时懂得，只要他真正开始工作，灵感就会源源不断。专业，所以更好。
3. 知己，然后投入。在开始一天的工作前，你要明了自己想要完成的事。一天时间，或许不够完成10个大项目，但是你可以完成一个重要项目，或至少完成部分。为自己选出今天想完成的事中最重要的三件。一旦选定，就完全投入到其中去，不要走神（至少，在工作时间里要如此）。先做那三件事。全神贯注然后在做完以后，接着做那些需要在今天完成的次要一些的任务。如果你发现你自己走神了没有在做单子上的那三件事，回过头去做那三件事，同时要全情投入。
4. 扫除会让你分心的事物。不要在这上面花太多时间，因为扫除分心事物本身也会让你分心。花个一分钟，关掉电邮、提示窗口和所有通告。可以的话就关掉因特网。除了你在工作的那个窗口，其余的都关掉。快速整理桌子（把所有东西扫入抽屉或其他——你可以稍后整理的东西里），可能的话，就拔掉电话线。搁起听筒或通告你的同事（如果在家，就通告家人）在下面的一个小时里（或者你计划的完成任务所要的时间段里）你不想被打扰。然后再开始工作。
5.定时定点。给你第一重要的任务定好每天的时间。对于我来说，就是写作。我总是以写作作为一天的开始（例如，写这篇帖子）。你们的情况或许不同。定好开始时间，可能的话也定好结束时间——视情况而定吧，但重要的是要定好开始时间。时间到，就开始工作。毫无例外。
6. 明了动机。你为什么要这么做？这个任务为什么重要？这个工作目标是什么？后果对你来说重要吗？为什么？你需要弄明白这些来明了自己的目的，来对抗阻力。
7. 动工。最后，世界上所有建议加起来也没有这条简单的（同时也是永恒的）指导那么困难——坐下，开工。做这个有阻力？除了开工，没有其他方法可以克服啊。阅读再多的关于阻力的资料是没用的。上拖拉者论坛是没用的。在待办事项上下功夫是没用的。只有工作才真正有用。而开工是真正做些什么的唯一方法。那么当你感到懈怠时，怎么开始呢？就开始吧。感到需要做其他事？提醒自己现在需要做什么，为什么要这么做。在定好的时间地点坐下，开工。
对于我来说，这意味着我打开一个空白文档，写下我要写的题目。然后我开始绞尽脑汁，列下大纲。这让我在一开始就战胜了阻力。一旦开始了，我通常能写得很流畅。重要的还是先要开始啊。
所以，读完这篇文章，你就立刻开工吧！
扩展阅读:《对付分心事，保持注意力》，这是在LifeDev.net上刚刚发表的有关这个话题的另一篇好文章。
任何时间都可以完成的事可能反而完不成。——苏格兰谚语
如果你喜欢这篇文章，请把它分享到del.icio.us或者Digg。谢谢