Work productivity, time management, organization, tools and tips

If you're having one of those days when you can't seem to get going, or you've got a project you're dreading, try smaller steps. Micro steps, even. Inspirational writer SARK has a worksheet devoted to this technique. 

Whenever you have a project to do, you break it into steps, action steps, that tell you what to do next. These steps have to be small and contained enough that you can grasp the activity required and accomplish it. The harder or more complex or just more repellent the project is, the smaller you should make your steps. 

Say you have to develop a contact list for a media project. "Develop contact list" is too big to be a task. Break it down further. The first thing you might do is go through your address book and identify potential contacts. Even smaller: go through A-D in your address book.

Also, you don't have to start at the beginning of a project. Find a do-able task from the middle or the end of your project and start there. Set up the table or database you're going to put the contacts into, for example. 

Another SARK trick is to write down what you'll do. Write in your calendar in the 11 a.m. slot: "Go through A-D in address book and note potential contacts." Writing it down makes it concrete rather than just a thought in your head. Writing it down for a particular time gives you an obligation to fulfill.

The key is to choose something that you know you can do easily. That can get the ball rolling for getting more done. But even if it doesn't, a series of really small steps will get you where you need to go.