A major reason for procrastinating on big, important tasks is that they appear so large and scary when you first approach them.
One technique that I have read about and can be use to cut a big task down to size is the “Salami slice” method. Mmmmmm salami….I look at my task and lay out the task in detail….then I begin to resolve just one slice at a time. Often, once I have started and completed a single part of the job or task, I feel like doing just one more “slice.” Soon, I find myself working through the job one part at a time, and before I know it, the job is complete. Has this ever happened to you? I know it has happened to me many times just didn’t know it had such a cool name like “Salami Slice Method”…
It is important to remember that we all have this deep down inside us…this urge to complete a job or task…it makes us feel happier and more powerful when we start and complete a task of any kind. Ever finish something and feel lighter afterwards, like that heavy monkey on your back left and went home?? This is because we are satisfying a deep subconscious need to bring finality to a job or project. This act of eating your frog triggers a release of endorphins in your brain and the bigger the task you start and complete or frog you eat, the better and more happy you feel. Feeling on cloud 9.
Another technique you can use is called the “Swiss cheese” method. All this talk about food is making me hungry this morning!!
You punch a hole into the task, like a hole in a block of Swiss Cheese. Punching a hole into something sure makes it less scary…. You Swiss cheese a task when you resolve to work for a specific time period on a task. This may be as little as five or ten minutes, after which you will stop and do something else. Once you start swiss cheesing your tasks you begin to develop a momentum and a feeling of accomplishment (begin to feel happy). You become energized and excited.
Eat Your Frog! Take a large, complex, multi-task job that you’ve been putting off and either samari the “salami slice” or punch the “Swiss cheese”…just get started..
Love Vanessa 💖
being Vanessa 