De ene deadline is de andere niet
De klus was geklaard en ik kon de studieboeken terug in de kast zetten. Mijn oog viel op een dun boekje dat ik al een tijdje kwijt was: Eat that Frog! 21 Great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time, geschreven door Brian Tracy.
Omdat ik nu ineens zeeën van tijd had begon ik wat door het boekje te bladeren:
Deadlines are an excuse.
[Eat that frog! — Brian Tracy]
Many people say that they work better under the pressure of deadlines. Unfortunately, years of research indicate that this is seldom true.
Under the pressure of deadlines, often self-created through procrastination, people suffer greater stress, make more mistakes, and have to redo more tasks than under any other conditions. Often the mistakes that people make when working under tight deadlines lead to defects and cost overruns that lead to substantial financial losses in the long term. Sometimes a job actually takes much longer to complete when people rush to get it done at the last minute and then have to redo it.
Daar had Brian een punt. Om eerlijk te zijn behoor ik ook tot die groep van mensen die het excuus van een deadline nodig heeft om in actie te komen. Het examen Projectmanagement deze week is een perfect voorbeeld. Zou het anders kunnen?
Erg benieuwd naar wat Brian mij te vertellen had om voortaan niet meer van deadline naar deadline te leven las ik verder:
Put the pressure on yourself.
[Eat that frog! — Brian Tracy]
Create imaginary deadlines.
One of the best ways for you to overcome procrastination is by working as though you had only one day to get your most important jobs done.
By putting the pressure on yourself, you will accomplish more and better tasks faster than ever before. You will become a high-performance, high-achieving personality. You will feel terrific about yourself, and bit by bit, you will build up the habit of rapid task completion that will then go on to serve you all the days of your life.
Hmm, dat moet ik nog eens lezen als ik wat minder tijd heb. Misschien dat ik de diepere wijsheid van dit advies dan wel begrijp.
There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day. Using ‘eat that frog’ as a metaphor for tackling the most challenging task of your day — the one you are most likely to put off, but also probably the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life — Eat that frog! shows you how to zero in on these critical tasks and organise your day.
Eat that frog!
Brian Tracy
Uitgeverij Hodder
ISBN 9781444765427