Get Up and Get Going

Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Kitchen timer

By Anonymous

Step
1
Take an ordinary kitchen timer and set it for fifteen minutes. Take the phone off the hook, turn the computer screen off and warn those whom you live with that for the next fifteen minutes you are not to be disturbed. Then ... set the timer ticking and you're off! Your goal for the next fifteen minutes is to work on one narrowly defined project (one room, task, etc.) ... AT AS RAPID A PACE AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT SACRIFICING ACCURACY ... until the timer rings. At which point you are done, and are under no obligation to work further. Your contract with yourself is to work for fifteen minutes, only. Period. Anybody can do that, right? And at least you'll be that much further along. (Of course what generally happens is that success breeds success, the lethargy has been conquered and the progress you've made inspires you to go for another fifteen minutes, and another....

Step
2
By the time the timer alarms, you'll be zooming along, pleased with your progress and you will have a huge dent in whatever it was that fifteen minutes before you were unable to make yourself get up and start. I have used this method of motivating myself many times over many years, and without fail, by the end of the fifteen minutes I am out of the rut and into the groove!


Step
3
There are three reasons this little self-management tool works so well. One, your commitment is limited and the reward is great. Two, there is a congruence of goals: you have conquered the necessary task and the lethargy in one fell blow! Three, the time limit and the condition that you do as much as possible as quickly as possible gets your body moving and your blood flowing, which focuses your mind. The mind-body link works decidedly in your favor.

Don't believe it? Try it the next time your necessity butts heads with your lethargy ... you will become a believer, I promise!