Fail Forward Fast, Tom Peters

[GT Bulmer]

Good Morning:

The quotation below from Tom Peters arrived in my email this Monday morning.

Fail Forward Fast

It is far better to have sloppy success than to have perfect procrastination. It is easy to get caught up in the endless tinkering and perfecting of a project. It is true some things require perfection – most simply need excellence. All need action today!

Do you find yourself waiting to launch important projects? Are you forever splitting hairs about elements that are not mission critical. Do you spend hours and hours on details that don’t matter much?

Start your Monday with action! In taking action you may fail – but even that failure will move you forward toward ultimate success. Pick a project you have been putting off and begin today to take the action which will accelerate your path to achievement.

~ Tom Peters

Thanks, Tom, for the encouragement. I'll work on it.

GT

[MichelleJ]

Could be speaking about me as well. I always tend to procrastinate on any task that I am unsure of and will find all sorts of other things that suddenly need to be done.

MichelleJ

[David Hurley]

I like it, GT,

"It is far better to have sloppy success than to have perfect procrastination."

I have always been a bit of a bodger, I mean just check out my japanese-games-shop.com site. Absolutely horrible to look at, but a nice litter earner, know what I mean? So good in fact, that I am loathe to "improve" it.

The biggest problem I face though is having several projects that I need to move forward and limited time to move them... and that leaves me uncertain about which one to work on... so I fall back on easy stuff like forum posting (!), traffic exchange work, and so forth...

So if you learn anything about how to set priorities in limited time, I'd like to hear about it!

DH
P. S. I retweeted this thread.

[GT Bulmer]

Thanks, Michelle and David, for your comments.

David, I have the same experience with trying to properly prioritize the priorities. When a person has several projects with impending deadlines, which one do they work on first?

My wife says I am motivated by pressure and deadlines and I have to agree that that is true sometimes. With some projects, I can't seem to drag myself to do it until the deadline is approaching, then look at me go!

Part of my problem is that I sometimes wait until "inspiration" hits before focusing on a project. And there are times when I know that has been the right thing to do because when I've tried to force the project, it just doesn't come out well, but when I leave it until inspiration comes, I can simply fly with it.

I really appreciate what Tom has said about "taking action." Just do it, get the project started.

There have been times when I was truly dragging, no motivation, no energy, no inspiration, so I just forced myself to sit down at the keyboard and start typing. Before long, the words began to flow and the article began to take shape. On occasion, this has produced an article almost completely different than the idea I started out with ... and better, too!

So, like Tom, I encourage forum members and visitors to pick a project you have been putting off and start it - today.

(Thanks for retweeting this thread, David.)

GT

[David Hurley]

There is a psychological trick that I used to use when I didn't feel like studying Japanese, and which I teach some of my language students...

Don't tell yourself "I have to study Japanese for an hour today", instead just say, I'll copy some Japanese into my notebook for ten minutes. Copying isn't study and ten minutes isn't long. After ten minutes of copying, you are probably getting into it, if so - keep going, if not, feel free to stop as you have hit your "10 minutes copying" target. Most of the time you get into the swing and keep going for a while longer.

Maybe the "ten minute copying" trick could be applied to getting projects started...

[GT Bulmer]

... Maybe the "ten minute copying" trick could be applied to getting projects started...

Hi, David:

That is a great trick and I can say from similar experience that it works! Sometimes all too well.

There have been some days where near the end of the day I am starting to fizzle out, but instead of giving up or giving in, I say, "I'll just do one more task," or "I'll just work on this thing for another 15 minutes." An hour, maybe two hours later, my wife has long ago gone to bed and I have to sneak in so as not to disturb her.

I think what you have suggested is a great technique to create some action and momentum. It may not always work ... but it's always worth a try. What's 10 minutes anyway?

GT

[MichelleJ]

There is a psychological trick that I used to use when I didn't feel like studying Japanese, and which I teach some of my language students...

Don't tell yourself "I have to study Japanese for an hour today", instead just say, I'll copy some Japanese into my notebook for ten minutes. Copying isn't study and ten minutes isn't long. After ten minutes of copying, you are probably getting into it, if so - keep going, if not, feel free to stop as you have hit your "10 minutes copying" target. Most of the time you get into the swing and keep going for a while longer.

Maybe the "ten minute copying" trick could be applied to getting projects started...

This is a great idea David, I have tried that type of thing sometimes but usually set the time at half an hour. Sometimes it works brilliantly other times not so well, but definitely worth making that small commitment and if it works great.

MichelleJ

[TannyL]

There is a psychological trick that I used to use when I didn't feel like studying Japanese, and which I teach some of my language students...

Don't tell yourself "I have to study Japanese for an hour today", instead just say, I'll copy some Japanese into my notebook for ten minutes. Copying isn't study and ten minutes isn't long. After ten minutes of copying, you are probably getting into it, if so - keep going, if not, feel free to stop as you have hit your "10 minutes copying" target. Most of the time you get into the swing and keep going for a while longer.

Maybe the "ten minute copying" trick could be applied to getting projects started...

Hi David,
The "only 10 minutes" is true to all aspects of life. You don't have to exercise for 30 minutes, only 10 will do (better than none at all), work for 10 min, study only 10 min. This is the best way to build habits and it also helps when you feel unmotivated.