If you’ve been reading last year, you may have encounter the series of articles I posted about self-motivation/productivity (I think it was called, “feel the passion, build the skill” or something similar). The blog archives were messed up when we did the upgrade, so for now I can’t track these articles to repost them. 

However, here’s a highlight I remember from back then, which will help us make some advanced modifications to the concept of self-motivation:

What I concluded back then was, that in order to feel self-motivated, I have used a reversed system of “goal setting”. I first enabled myself to go through the day, and in the reflection time at evening I’d be writing down what I did towards goals I have… so instead of having a “to do” list ahead of time, I used to have a “done” list, going through the day either randomly through things I knew I had to do (without a list or a plan written down) or by stopping once in awhile and considering what’s most important to do at that moment.

It worked quite well. I used to wake up in the morning imagining how proud and fulfilled I would feel in the evening writing down all the huge tasks I’ve managed to tackled through that day. What I was preventing myself from experiencing is the disappointment (either conscious or subconscious) that you get in case you do have a “to do” list and you don’t manage to go through even 3 or 4 items… the ones you did complete become less exciting since the list is usually long enough to make you feel overwhelmed. 

My source of procrastination and lack of action is being overwhelmed. I like doing a lot of things; I love having a lot of goals and reaching out to many resources. But if I have to put it all in a specific plan right here and now, I’d be “neutering” my self-motivation force. Nothing gets me to stop and “think” instead of being in action, excepts having a vivid image of how much I still have to work on. 

So until recently, the system was simple – I had my few major most important outcomes (not goals) written down. I had NO plan or “to do” list or “stepping stones” (or whatever you want to call them) anywhere. I went through the day, expecting to feel great about what I did that day later on in the late evening, and that gave me ideas on what I should do at that moment of the day. So I acted according to what I felt, kinesthetically (not logically and not by comparing the priorities of different tasks or by what would make other people to think “nicely” about me), would bring me the highest sense of fulfillment within a few hours. 

Now this is the modification (or improvement, judging the results I got so far) I have made to this “reversed planning” motivation strategy:

I have enlarged the “action chunks”. In a way, we can call it “chunk up”, but it might not fit to this term for every set of actions. 

What I did was, instead of thinking what to do in the next 5 minutes, I have created an image in my mind of a certain “benchmark” of the most important outcome I want to work on. 

Now, these “important outcomes” change by the day or by the hour. For example, when I started out using this modification, I had the outcome “NLP book” in my mind as the most important one. The “benchmark” I had put for that day was “completing a firm book structure, with chapters titles, key ideas (by order) that will definitely be included in each chapter and a table of content I’d be happy with”. 

That’s a lot of work; in fact, it took about 7 hours to do this, and all of it happened in that same day. Why it took so long to write a few chapter titles and to insert the ideas in each? Well, that book is going to have more than 200 chapters in it (each is about 4-5 pages, don’t be too worried). So structuring a book of 200+ chapters, with key ideas in each and in an order that I’d be happy with… that took me about 7 hours. And this is a BIG chunk of action/s. 

The modification to my self-motivation strategy made it so that I wrote only the benchmark at the end of the day… and it made me feel really proud and fulfilled, because I knew how many actions and hard work it took to make it happen. Also, it is now preventing me from feeling overwhelmed AFTER I am taking actions… imagine having to write down every small “to do” item in your fulfillment journal! I’d be annoyed by the 10th item and the next morning I wouldn’t even want to think how much work I have for that day (considering yesterday’s). And more than so, knowing how much I’m going to have to write that evening!!! ..you can complete this thought if you’re also prone to procrastination as I am. 

This new way of using the strategy for self motivation, for now, gives me at the end of the day sometimes a sense of having a large burden being lifted from my shoulders – hey, I managed to finish THIS ONE! Ahhhhhhhhhh…. relief… “look, sweetie, I managed all of THIS today!” … I tried it once, but sharing doesn’t always work as you think it should; her response was, “but your wrote only ONE thing”… now go explain to her the whole strategy at 1am. I’d rather sleep…