The 30 Day ‘Boring but Important’ Challenge.

Do you ever wake up at 3 am and send yourself an email?

I routinely wake up to a selection of garbled emails that say things like ‘find school blazer’, ‘check weird mole’, ‘egg machine?’* Because, if I don’t write something down the moment it pops into my head, it’s quite possible it will be forgotten forever. Or only resurface when I am standing in the queue at the Post Office (‘I really must get that brake light fixed’) or searching down the back of the sofa for my keys (‘I really need to get a spare set cut‘).

At any given time, there is all manner of things we really should be getting around to doing. But, between our work and our kids, our friends and our shows, life admin often gets lost in the mix. The problem with all this not-done stuff is that it leaves us with what productivity guru, David Allen, calls ‘open loops’ or ‘incompletes’. These internal commitments that we make to ourselves ( ‘update will’, ‘clean rug’, ‘start taking magnesium?’) are really rather stressful, but if we can find a way to close them we would ‘experience greater relaxation, better focus and increased productive energy’.

Which sounds awesome. But, seriously – who has the time?

In his book ‘Getting Things Done – the art of stress-free productivity’, Mr Allen has created a whole system for dealing effectively with all our ‘open loops’ forever. Which is perfect for the seriously committed Type-A’s amongst you. For everyone else may I suggest my ‘Boring But Important’ 30 Day Challenge – which borrows a handful of Mr Allen’s suggestions and then crams them all rather greedily into one month – usually September**.

This challenge (should you choose to accept it) is about actually doing all that STUFF that you keep meaning to get to. It’s about saying goodbye to the late-night email reminders and the ‘I really should/must’ mental notes on replay. It’s about closing those loops and setting yourself FREE for the foreseeable.

Keen? – here’s how to get started:

Step 1. CAPTURE: Spend the first few days of the month capturing all the ‘boring but important’ stuff into one master list. This is not your run of the mill to-do list, my friend. This is the motherlode. I like to break the list up into key areas, a bit like the wheel of life templates – Environment, Health, Family, Social/Friends, Love/Romance, Career/Work, Finance, Fun/Recreation, Personal Development. So, under ‘Environment’ you might have ‘fix brake light’, ‘extra keys cut’, ‘new laundry basket’, ‘reorganise wardrobe’. Under ‘Health’ you can scribble all the ‘eyes/teeth/dermatologist/pap smear’ business that needs to be attended to. And – yes, most of it is ‘boring but important’, hence its moniker – but it doesn’t have to be. ‘Personal Development’? Book that course you always wanted to do. ‘Fun/Recreation’? – Start planning some fun weekends away or ordering those cool, personalised presents you usually leave way too late. And, plus – that’s the whole point. You are cramming all the BORING into a 30-day window – thus freeing up the remaining 335 for the stuff you’d far rather be doing.

Step 2: NEXT STEPS: If we want to take a leaf out of ‘The Getting Things Done’ manual, the next step would be breaking our list up into sub-lists. Why? Because one of the main reasons ALL the stuff we need to do overwhelms us is because we are not actually defining ‘(1)what ‘done’ means (outcome) and (2) what ‘doing’ looks like (action). I know, bear with me. Let’s say you were thinking of getting your eyes lasered. Your list might just say ‘Eyes’. So, if your outcome is ‘being able to see without glasses’, the actions needed to get there are a bit more detailed than ‘Eyes’. So, your list might say, ‘research SMILE laser vs Lasik’, ‘call Ade and ask for his recommended surgeon’, ‘book appointment with optician for referral letter’ etc. Sure, it sounds like more work – but by clearly defining the ‘next step’, you are actually making it easier to take it.

Step 3: THE 2 MINUTE RULE. Which brings us nicely to the 2-minute rule, which does exactly what it says on the tin. ‘If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it is defined.’ And, if you have made the appropriate sub-lists, this will knock a whole host of stuff over very quickly – appointment made (check), thank you text sent (check), filter cleaned (check) and so on.

Step 4: CHIP. CHIP. CHIP. For bigger tasks (research, reorganization etc) allocate some time (an hour before work, on the bus ride home) and just start chipping away at that list. This is not the month for discovering great new podcasts, writing off your weekends with a big Friday night out or getting stuck into Season 3 of ‘Selling Sunset’ (so good!). Remember ‘The Four Burner Theory’? – Channel that. Keep your eye on the deadline (30th) and trust in the power of ‘Parkinson’s Law’ (work expands to the time allocated). Triumphantly cross off every completed task and relish in the smugness that will start to seep from every pore. Let me know how you go 🙂

This GET TIDIER post is brought to you by someone who was a tiny bit offended that no one, NOT ONE person tagged me in that stupid push up challenge 😉

*I was going through a phase of craving boiled eggs for breakfast and this multi-egg cooking contraption – beam me up yolki! – had clearly been on my mind.

** September for me has always been synonymous with fresh starts. Growing up in England meant September was ‘Back to School’ month, with its brand new pencil cases and unblemished textbooks. My birthday also falls in August and I tend to celebrate this all month long – another reason that September is ripe for a fresh start after all the feasting, drinking and debauchery. Plus, on this side of the world (Sydney) the end of challenge smugness brings us neatly to the first day of Spring. Yay!