On a popular weight loss show, a contestant weighing over 500 pounds kept repeating, “I have to lose my dad. I have to lose my dad.” While I’m not in the contestant’s shoes needing to lose almost 300 pounds — the amount his dad weighed — his statement shook me. His body language, his face, his words all revealed he was feeling paralyzed.

Photo from sxc.hu user vivekchugh

This “it’s too big of a goal” thinking can overpower people in all parts of their lives. Many set big goals and objectives thinking of only the result. Then reality hits when they see how much work and time it will take to reach this big goal. Paralysis, delays and procrastination follow until they stop trying and fail to reach their goal.

Make it happen. It can be anything you need to change or do. Lose five pounds. Write 100 words. Work on the project for five minutes.

Change Overwhelming Goals into Doable Ones

A more doable approach is to break the big goal into smaller, more manageable goals. This doesn’t mean ignoring the big goal of losing 200 pounds, earning your first million or serving your 10,000th customer. To turn these big goals into bite-sized goals, set smaller goals of losing 10 pounds for this month, earning extra $100 a week or finding two new customers this week. As soon as you reach this smaller goal, bump it up. Thinking smaller and accomplishing those little steps will give you the satisfaction and motivation to continue.

You can apply this approach to many situations with these steps:

1. Identify what you want to change or accomplish.
2. Create a bite-sized goal that brings you a step closer to what you want to change or accomplish.
3. Reach goal? If yes, go to the next step. If no, go back to step two and try again or modify the goal to something more reachable.
4. Celebrate and up the goal.
5. Repeat steps two through four until you reach your big goal.

Start with Five Minutes

Instead of thinking “I need to write an 800-word article,” start by writing 100 words or writing for five minutes. Continue this process, building your way up to the big goal of the 800-word article. This approach of small steps cuts the chances of your giving up.

This do something for five minutes approach works great for when you’re not in the mood for working on something. Do it for five minutes and see what happens. For email addicts, close your email application for five minutes. Increase the time as you adapt. For web-based email, try using a different browser that you never use when you need to do something on the web. Make it a rule that you can’t open the web-based email application on that browser.

I’ve had a few days when I didn’t check email between first thing in the morning and noon. That’s HUGE for me. It took a while to make it happen, but I started by closing my email app and switching to “Contacts” in Gmail so I’m not staring at the emails waiting for me. I have good days and bad days when it comes to checking emails less often. It’s progress.

I check email obsessively on days when I want to hear from someone. That desire for a little connection is one that changing email habits won’t cure.

I picked up this philosophy from the the short “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” by Robert Maurer.

How did you make it happen?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Marathon runners don’t prepare for marathons by running for miles. They start small and build up. It’s that muscle memory thing. Some of our writing assignments can be big and daunting. So we attempt to write only to let ourselves be interrupted many times in the course of an hour.

Meet the Pomodoro Technique. This procrastination busting approach can work great for writers. If GTD works for you (Pomodoro doesn’t replace GTD — it only contains a small part of GTD), there’s no reason to try something different or change it unless you think it’ll work better. After all, if we stick with status quo, we forgo opportunities to find ways to do things better, faster and more efficiently.

If you’re on a roll and can’t stop writing; by all means, don’t! The Pomodoro gives you an option when you’re struggling to write at all or without interruptions. Maybe you feel overwhelmed by all the things you need to do. Stop.

Focus on one task at a time as the following steps quickly show you how the Pomodoro works:

1. Pick a task and do that task for 25 minutes straight.
2. Take a short break — about five minutes.
3. Work on the task again or pick another one to do for another 25 minutes.
4. Repeat until you’ve done this four times.
5. Take a longer break.

While I don’t struggle to get work done, I gave it a shot and it worked well by the second round of 25 minutes. I gave in to my powerful urge to check email during the first one — I’m gosh awful about that.

The tasks can include doing research for a story, writing an article for X publication, blogging for Y client, doing your marketing for the day, completing your administrative work, replying to emails. You get it. Just stick with one thing for those 25 minutes. You begin with a sprint and work you way up to completing the marathon of an article, book, whatever without feeling like, “Oh, man. I have 24 miles to go.” Instead, “I’m going to do two miles. No problem.”

In a way, you’ll build your muscle memory. You complete these tasks in short, doable bites. Maybe you’ll find that this works so well for you that you’ll stretch the time or go on an writing spree. (Remember to take a computer break for the sake of your eyes and hands.)

Of course, you might be anti-GTD and everything and it works for you like it does for Jamie.

How do you complete your writing tasks or projects?

• Getting Things Done with Twitter: Don’t like the idea of paying through Twitter.
• Twitterfall: A New Twitter Tool for Journalists: I get nervous about new twitter tools because they can boost your addiction and time spent on twitter [Link: Esther]. And a link to Twitterfall.
• Becoming a Great Programmer: Use Your Trash Can by Esther Schindler.
• What the Hashtag? Can’t figure out what the # means in twitter? Wonder no more.
• Word Count Plus FireFox Plugin: Counts number words in selected text and total.
• How to Be Likeable: 10 Things You Can Do Today [Link: GL Hoffman]
• SPOGG: Society for the Promotional of Good Grammar
• Poll: What is the first media outlet you look/listen in order to get your news on a daily/consistent basis? Saddened (but not surprised) to see print low on the list. Created with twtpoll (multiple choice only).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Awesome Foosball Tables: WOW. Hubby would love one of these, but they’ll remain admired from afar just like his favorite Corvette ’61.
• The Great Pyramid PC Mod: Cool.
• 10 tips to give up Facebook during Lent
• Evaluate tech purchases: Retrevo and Wize [Link: Web Worker Daily]

Many of us ask how we can find more time in our busy days or if we can add another hour to the 24 hour clock. Well, the 25 hour thing won’t happen anytime soon, so the best we can do is look at our current schedule and chop time there as Lifehack gives 21 ideas for adding more hours in the day. I won’t rehash the list and instead share my experiences. Three kids, a spouse, my business and volunteering forces a girl to be wise with her time.

1. TV – My TV viewing habits differ from my kids’, but they’re not learning from my actions. I don’t just watch whatever is on TV and whittle away my free time. I select shows I enjoy and tape them for viewing at my convenience, not the network’s. I still have shows from April that I’ve yet to watch. I usually watch them while doing laundry or exercising as both have to be done.

2. Internet – One thing I rarely do — get my news from the Internet. I read the newspaper every morning, which has a start and end point. Reading news on the Internet could go on and on. If something happens during the day, then I’ll look online.

3. Games – Thank goodness I have the opportunity to review games. I hardly ever played games because of my busy schedule. When Mark Wegner asked if I would review games for him — he created a monster as I review for Gamezebo, too. To avoid temptation of getting carried away with an addicting game, I load them on the laptop not my work computer. Now instead of cutting into my work time, games sometimes cut into my sleeping time.

4. E-mail – This is one of my worst habits. However, I’ll get wrapped up in a project and not think about checking e-mail for a while (which is more like an hour, not half a day).

5. Chores – Well, I’ve put organizing systems in place, but I run into a problem that’s hard to control — the rest of the household. No one cares about organization like I do — not even the spouse.

6. Listening to books – I wish I could do this as I think it’s a marvelous way to multitask while riding in the car or stuck in the waiting room. I carry a book or a PDA with me at all times, so I can read or use an application on the PDA that I’m reviewing whenever stuck someplace.

7. Prioritize – Focus on getting higher priority items or those with a nearing deadline done before the rest. Even those with a deadline about a month away — plan ahead for those. For example, I’m judging many PDA-based applications for Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine awards for all of August. Prioritizing means looking at how much I need to review and the time left. It would be unwise to wait until a week before the deadline to start reviewing. If I do this, it’d require spending all of my time on reviewing when I still have to get client work done. So I planned ahead and do a little each day.

What do you do to help make the most of your time?