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Approaching grueling tasks is my mindset the problem?

LiveEntrepreneur

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I am once again facing the challenge of grueling tasks. I need to write a few thousand-word article for something and before the work was even started I just visualized the massive workload, the research I'd have to do, etc. I have ended up 10% doing it, but the whole process is quite painful. Do you think the reason is that I approach this the wrong way? This is one thing I don't understand, I can work hard at my day job but to sit down and focus on my own stuff and work hard is a whole bigger challenge, even if I do it for a much shorter time frame. Just wondering if for some of you if every day is a grind that you don't look forward to?
 
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FierceRacoon

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It's just your emotions. Your unconscious mind does not expect any rewards so it does not want you to suffer. It will change over time, after you get enough success out of it. Until it happens you will have to push yourself and go against your emotions. Use leverage if needed, such as being held accountable by a friend, public commitments, donating money to charity if you don't make some deadline, etc. The emotions you feel are perfectly normal and are essentially the root of all mediocrity: people don't feel like expending effort before any rewards, particularly if the rewards are not guaranteed. The solution, once again, is to do it anyway, even if it is 10%. Better 10% than 0%.
 

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There is always a grind.

Many times, it overlaps with the thing that is most important to do.

Getting started is the hard part. Commit to doing it for only 5 minutes. Chances are, by the end of that 5 minutes, it'll be easy to keep going.

Sometimes for a huge task, I will sit down for 30 minutes and plan out what the segments of the task are. Then I'll pick one of those segments, and tackle just that one for now.
 

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I feel you. Have few thousand words to write as well. I spent most of the day changing headers and their colors, because it's truly hard to start the process.
But, of course, I would never fail my clients, so here's what I did:
1. Made a plan (headlines, subheadlines with notes for each). This helps to know what exactly to write, what exactly to research.
2. Read everything related to my headlines and subheadlines.
3. Write everything from first to the last page. Don't overthink, don't edit. Just get all pages done.
4. Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit.
5. Repeat step four 100 times.
6. Leave it for a day. Then edit again with a fresh look. Depending on the project, here you can work on the design, add graphs, pictures etc.

Momentum is the key. Get to writing as soon as possible. Rather have rough 1000 words that you can re-write and edit, than a blank page.

Make a plan. Read. Write. Edit. Edit.

Regarding the daily grind. I'm not sure what exactly you're doing, but if you're into copy/content writing, then you might need to "niche down". I started as "everything writer" and quickly realized that I don't enjoy writing content nearly as much as writing sales, marketing materials.
 
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WJK

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I am once again facing the challenge of grueling tasks. I need to write a few thousand-word article for something and before the work was even started I just visualized the massive workload, the research I'd have to do, etc. I have ended up 10% doing it, but the whole process is quite painful. Do you think the reason is that I approach this the wrong way? This is one thing I don't understand, I can work hard at my day job but to sit down and focus on my own stuff and work hard is a whole bigger challenge, even if I do it for a much shorter time frame. Just wondering if for some of you if every day is a grind that you don't look forward to?
You're putting the cart before the horse. What part of your subject really interests you? Write down some ideas and flesh them out. Do your research on those points of interest. Then add to them with other parts of the article you are planning. Sometimes you must sneak up on these projects.
 

Grinder20

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It's just your emotions. Your unconscious mind does not expect any rewards so it does not want you to suffer. It will change over time, after you get enough success out of it. Until it happens you will have to push yourself and go against your emotions. Use leverage if needed, such as being held accountable by a friend, public commitments, donating money to charity if you don't make some deadline, etc. The emotions you feel are perfectly normal and are essentially the root of all mediocrity: people don't feel like expending effort before any rewards, particularly if the rewards are not guaranteed. The solution, once again, is to do it anyway, even if it is 10%. Better 10% than 0%.
Congrats for side hustling...you're raising your comfort zone...that pain you feel is growth...keep pushing and just start writing...anything!!
 

RazorCut

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"Approaching Grueling Tasks Is My Mindset The Problem?"

In a word 'yes.' Your major issue is the natural feeling of being overwhelmed which stifles your productivity. You see the task in front of you as big, daunting and unpleasant. One that takes you away from the things you really want to do with your free time. Is it any wonder why you are procrastinating over it? If you have perfectionist tendencies you will also worry that you can't do such a huge task justice. You have fear of failure. Of rejection or criticism. Again all natural stumbling blocks most of us come up against.

Here are some ways through. Obviously the most important is first to sit down and break this task down into manageable chunks. The smaller the better. Then only concern yourself with them one at a time. The rest as far as you are concerned don't exist. Then it won't seem nearly so daunting.

In Neil Fiore's book "The Now Habit" he suggests something called 'The Unschedule' Basically you take a week planner that is divided into hours for each day. Your task is to plan out each day starting with recreation, exercise and socialising. Anything that you like to do.

Once those are in place put in the tasks you have to do (your job and other commitments). Once you have done that you can see what time you have left over for working on your project. You then schedule those in. This can create some urgency when you see how little spare time you actually have available to complete your task, especially if you have a deadline you have to abide by. Try to schedule working on your project prior to something that you find engaging (the things you want to do). That way completing an hour of writing before meeting up with friends at a bar becomes a reward.

Finding ways of just starting is one of the best ways forward. Task yourself with sitting in-front of your PC or laptop at a scheduled time and read or write one sentence. That's it. Nothing more. You can do that. It's dead easy. Grab a coffee take it to your desk, get comfortable and then read or write once sentence. Sit there for a few minutes and if you don't want to do any more then that's fine. Your task is complete. You haven't procrastinated. You have achieved your goal. The funny thing however is you are very likely to want to continue.

Another hack is to work on your project as soon as you get up. If your project is important to you, you will very likely think about it before nodding off to sleep and it may well be in your thoughts when you wake up. First thing in the morning is also a time when your willpower and motivation are often strongest.

Set aside 30 minutes each morning to work on your project. Keep doing that for a few weeks and it will become a habit. Habits trump willpower and motivation every time so if you can develop a set time like this and do Jerry Seinfeld's Method of "Don't break the chain" you stand a good chance of creating a productive state each and every morning.

If you want help to keep you on track feel free to hit me up with a PM.
 
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NursingTn

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Come up with the easiest version of the task that it is SO easy, you cannot refuse doing it then and there.

For example, make the goal to:

1) write ANY 1 word or
2) open up the laptop or
3) hustle for the funds to hire someone to write it or
4) open up the software program or
5) write 10 words, then one push up, then another ten words, then another push up

Etc.

It doesn't matter what that step looks like. All that matters is that you literally cannot refuse doing the task in some way because it is SO easy for YOU to do that particular version of the task.

Keep asking "what's the next easiest step" continuously until the task gets solved. It is all about consistent, baby steps.
 

WinYourself

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If you struggle with procrastination on a regular basis you're in the wrong business or doing tasks you should outsource / hire for. Using words like painful / grind points toward this direction.
 

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Total surrender. Only think about the next small step. Do not think about how much you still have to do.

Have faith that if you eat healthy, sleep healthy, accept your emotions and work on the task in a healthy way, then you will succeed.

Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that can happen?

And the best thing you can do is after every 1 hour of working meditate for a duration of 15 minutes to reset your mind and unclutter it, destress and realise it is not a big deal. View it as a regular break.
 
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FierceRacoon

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Regarding writing specifically, there is a cute little book "How to write a lot" by Paul Silvia. The book can be summarized as "you must schedule writing on your calendar, and nothing else in the entire world will help you", but it's worth reading just for its witty style.
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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"Approaching Grueling Tasks Is My Mindset The Problem?"

In a word 'yes.' Your major issue is the natural feeling of being overwhelmed which stifles your productivity. You see the task in front of you as big, daunting and unpleasant. One that takes you away from the things you really want to do with your free time. Is it any wonder why you are procrastinating over it? If you have perfectionist tendencies you will also worry that you can't do such a huge task justice. You have fear of failure. Of rejection or criticism. Again all natural stumbling blocks most of us come up against.

Here are some ways through. Obviously the most important is first to sit down and break this task down into manageable chunks. The smaller the better. Then only concern yourself with them one at a time. The rest as far as you are concerned don't exist. Then it won't seem nearly so daunting.

In Neil Fiore's book "The Now Habit" he suggests something called 'The Unschedule' Basically you take a week planner that is divided into hours for each day. Your task is to plan out each day starting with recreation, exercise and socialising. Anything that you like to do.

Once those are in place put in the tasks you have to do (your job and other commitments). Once you have done that you can see what time you have left over for working on your project. You then schedule those in. This can create some urgency when you see how little spare time you actually have available to complete your task, especially if you have a deadline you have to abide by. Try to schedule working on your project prior to something that you find engaging (the things you want to do). That way completing an hour of writing before meeting up with friends at a bar becomes a reward.

Finding ways of just starting is one of the best ways forward. Task yourself with sitting in-front of your PC or laptop at a scheduled time and read or write one sentence. That's it. Nothing more. You can do that. It's dead easy. Grab a coffee take it to your desk, get comfortable and then read or write once sentence. Sit there for a few minutes and if you don't want to do any more then that's fine. Your task is complete. You haven't procrastinated. You have achieved your goal. The funny thing however is you are very likely to want to continue.

Another hack is to work on your project as soon as you get up. If your project is important to you, you will very likely think about it before nodding off to sleep and it may well be in your thoughts when you wake up. First thing in the morning is also a time when your willpower and motivation are often strongest.

Set aside 30 minutes each morning to work on your project. Keep doing that for a few weeks and it will become a habit. Habits trump willpower and motivation every time so if you can develop a set time like this and do Jerry Seinfeld's Method of "Don't break the chain" you stand a good chance of creating a productive state each and every morning.

If you want help to keep you on track feel free to hit me up with a PM.
Thanks for that wealth of information. It's weird, I've read all these books on self-help, habits, etc and I know a lot of the methods, maybe I need some implementation instead. I do try to force it, I guess the way I usually do it is to look at it as one massive task and start doing the work then while I am doing it, I am still thinking of all the other work. Easier said than done unfortunately lol, but I'll try my best to focus on the one tiny thing and not caring about the rest. My implementation sucks haha
 

LiveEntrepreneur

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Total surrender. Only think about the next small step. Do not think about how much you still have to do.

Have faith that if you eat healthy, sleep healthy, accept your emotions and work on the task in a healthy way, then you will succeed.

Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that can happen?

And the best thing you can do is after every 1 hour of working meditate for a duration of 15 minutes to reset your mind and unclutter it, destress and realise it is not a big deal. View it as a regular break.
Yeah it makes sense, I think that is the source of my stress now that I think about it. Something like what Andy was saying, that I was worried about problems that didn't exist yet.
 
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Raveling

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I am once again facing the challenge of grueling tasks. I need to write a few thousand-word article for something and before the work was even started I just visualized the massive workload, the research I'd have to do, etc. I have ended up 10% doing it, but the whole process is quite painful. Do you think the reason is that I approach this the wrong way? This is one thing I don't understand, I can work hard at my day job but to sit down and focus on my own stuff and work hard is a whole bigger challenge, even if I do it for a much shorter time frame. Just wondering if for some of you if every day is a grind that you don't look forward to?
It's definitely your mindset.

Everythone battles with this.

Just start.

If you focus on a super low bar ( I personally hate such goals ) but research shows they work.

High bar goals are inspiring, but low bar goals get you started.

Instead of thinking of the "insurmountable" larger task ( a thousand words isn't that much, and thousands are just multiples of not that much ) , shoot for a single word, a single sentence, paragraph, or hour, whatever gets you started.

Once you're started there's a good chance you'll feel silly stopping after one sentence, so you'll write a few more...

Commit to your low bar EVERY F*ckING DAY! (EFD) if you do more, awesome, if you do the minimum, awesome. If you don't do any, it's not great, but it's not a big deal either UNLESS you continue that pattern, quit, or beat yourself up over it, then it becomes a big deal with a simple solution.

GET over it, quit beating yourself up, and get back to it EFD.

Yesterday I didn't train, I was supposed to, but I didn't, no big deal, I'll either do it tonight or tomorrow, simple.

What matters is what you to most of the time, consistency and having the resilience to get back on the horse.

Sure EFD, hard core for every free moment is ideal, and probably the fastest and most productive, but ONLY if you do it repeatedly.

To eat an elephant, take one bite at a time, to walk a thousand miles take... or to write a few thousand words...

timbgreen
 

CUPCAKE

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I am once again facing the challenge of grueling tasks. I need to write a few thousand-word article for something and before the work was even started I just visualized the massive workload, the research I'd have to do, etc. I have ended up 10% doing it, but the whole process is quite painful. Do you think the reason is that I approach this the wrong way? This is one thing I don't understand, I can work hard at my day job but to sit down and focus on my own stuff and work hard is a whole bigger challenge, even if I do it for a much shorter time frame. Just wondering if for some of you if every day is a grind that you don't look forward to?
I have this exact same problem. I have a shopify store and can't seem to focus on it when I have days off to work on it. I do it out of spite for my day time job and the life I want to escape
 

MHP368

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Yeh , thats one thing ive learned with soul sucking jobs. If you dread it so much its on your mind when you arent at work you might as well get your resume in order because youre a few weeks shy of a sense of dread when you pull into the parking lot.


It sounds like youve put so much negative emotion into thinking about this that youve made the task worse than it has to be. Next time just jump on it. Eat the frog so to speak.
 
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