Do you sometimes struggle with certain tasks that don’t come easy? Perhaps handling your retirement and insurance forms? Or other life admins? Perhaps getting in shape is your tough cookie? Anything difficult on your plate – this article is for you
“No pain, no gain” is a pretty common catchphrase when it comes to getting difficult tasks done. Fortunately, it’s a myth due to our most basic human survival mechanism, which I will explain in this article.
If you don’t yet have a good system for handling your difficult tasks which you keep deferring , probably because you either dislike doing them or because your don’t know how to begin approaching it, and you’d like to get into a method that is sustainable and easy to maintain, keep reading!
In previous blog posts, we’ve talked about how every activity has a HIME — a time when you can get its High Impact out of Minimal Effort and that we strive for an 80% HIME TIME during our work week.
Difficult tasks are no exception to that.
We can get maximum results from putting in minimal effort, but in order to do that there are 3 elements to keep in mind:
1. Pick HIME time, by eliminating the not-right-times
We have about 16 hours in the day, so we first need to figure out which days and hours are most physically and emotionally conducive for us to deal with any of our difficult task. However, these decisions differ between tasks , not every difficult task gets done in the same HIME TIME. Here are some guidelines:
If the very thought of dealing with paperwork or going out for a jog before breakfast is exhausting, don’t feel you need to make an effort to do it early in the morning.
I see people jogging late at night, and I can’t imagine myself choosing the same, it’s obviously not my HIME for that but I could easily write and edit documents during evening or night times which others may find unbearable.
HIME TIME is subjective and can change during the year in accordance to personal life variable or externals such as weather or sunlight.
Our HIME time for each of our difficult tasks is personal and most likely not the same as your partner’s, neighbor’s or best friend’s.
Figuring out what your HIME time is will lower the barrier for approaching the task.
2. Our brain is hard-wired to avoid suffering
If we sit down to deal with a frustrating task and end it with confusion, mental exhaustion or sense of failure, our brain will wire the activity as a negative experience.
Same if we wish to exercise more often but end it with heavy breath, racing hearts and way too much sweat, brain will re-wire this as a negative experience.
Then, due to our most basic survival mechanism = avoiding pain, our brain will do everything in its power to prevent us from repeating it!
Out of survival instincts, our brain will come up with 10 different reasons why not jog tonight or even begin sorting our retirement papers.
Out of care and love, our brains will protect us from repeating those difficult tasks that left a negative wired experience.
That’s not good news for our to-do list.
What can be done about it?
Stop any difficult task about 5–10 minutes before the frustration and exhaustion begins, when your body is still vital or energized.
Now your mind will re-wire that activity as a positive experience.
Next time you plan to do it again, your mind will support your efforts to do so or at least not resist the idea.
This is true for every task that doesn’t come easy to us.
Stop just before it gets difficult: even if you’ve only made a little bit of progress.
What’s important is that your mind remembers it as a “not-so-difficult” experience and your survival mechanism won’t kick into action.
The brain will then offer very little resistance and help repeat it again and again until it becomes a habit or a routine in your life, no longer requiring significant mental effort or attention.
3. Impact is created out of repetition
Impact comes solely out of our ability to repeat the difficult task consistently.
It doesn’t matter which task you decide to do;
it doesn’t matter how many times a week;
it doesn’t matter how long each session is.
THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS:
CAN YOU REPEAT IT AGAIN AND AGAIN?
That is why I recommend that you only commit to an limited activity that is easy for you and one won’t take much time. Let’s look at an example:
10 minutes a day of sorting paperwork for a month will build a pretty nice stack of completed tasks BUT try 100 minutes and the result will be a strained mind, a tired body and a negatively wired experience.
Same goes for sports, try 10 push-ups daily and by the end of the month you have a fine looking muscle, try 100 per day and you get strained and rigid arms.
The rule of thumb is that it has to feel good to our body and mind.
Steady and slow is the way to go for the purpose of always making progress without much stress.
You can get maximum results with minimum effort once you:
• Align the work to your own HIME.
• Stop before it gets difficult and get back to it at another day and time.
• Focus primarily on consistent repetition, all other factor are minor to that.
Impact is created (only) out of consistency.
