Floss just one tooth every day. That’s not a big commitment. But it is what dentists tell people who have trouble remembering (or feel overwhelmed) when it comes to flossing.
Sounds lame, actually.
Flossing isn’t laborious. Pull out a twenty-four inch string of floss. Wrap one end around the index finger of your right hand, the other end around the index finger of your left hand. Work it between your teeth.
I just timed myself and the whole affair took me fifty-two seconds. And I was being particularly lifeless.
We don’t floss because we are lazy. And look for any excuse not to floss. This mindset holds for big projects. Take writing a book, for example.
I’ve got this side project I so want to finish. But, to be realistic, will involve at least a year or two of writing and research. That’s overwhelming. And the project only continues to grow. For every book I read I discover three more I want to read.
Add my mounting responsibilities at Copyblogger and, naturally, there is a logjam. I may go days without touching my side project. Unless I think about it like flossing just one tooth.
Why would a dentist tell patients to floss just one tooth a day? Because she knows once someone goes through the trouble of getting the floss out for one tooth, they are more than likely to floss every tooth. And flossing just one tooth doesn’t seem like a big deal.
So what I’ve committed to is at least 24 minutes every 24 hours. Even if all I do for those 24 minutes is re-read what I wrote the day before. That doesn’t seem nearly as daunting. And usually that’s enough to get me back into the momentum.
By the way, there’s nothing special about 24 minutes except that it mirrors 24 hours. Which makes it handy. Easy to remember. Cute you might say. Like your pearly whites (if, of course, you floss everyday).
What’s your gimmick to trick your mind into doing stuff it hates? Share in the comments.
Image by Alexander Rentsch
Similar approach. Do a little bit every day. I aim to write 200 words of my writing project du jour, which is a tiny amount but it adds up!
I hate to clean.
So I committed to cleaning/tidying my office 5 min a day. It’s a trivial amount of time.
Two weeks later, the office was presentable. Now I look forward to my cleaning routine (every weekday after lunch).
I do something like this with working out. I hate working out. So I tell my self just 10 pull ups, a few sit ups and pushups every two times a week. But then I wonder why I do it to begin with. 😀
While i also employ a similar tactic, breaking a monster project down into manageable small pieces and faithfully chipping away at it. I appreciate the comment about accepting that the time put in may be to just review the previous day’s work. With an uber monster project, I sometimes need to pull away and work on a side project and see that to completion. The psychological boost of actually finishing something helps me feel less overwhelmed by the larger one (that will still take much time to complete.
I JUST did that with a collaborative project. I pushed to create a SPECIAL REPORT that’s an excerpt of an upcoming book to launch for Valentine’s Day. If you still need a V-day gift or want relief from the same worn-out ideas, this report is definitely out of the chocolate box. “Unforgettable Encounters: Ancient Erotic Arts for More Intimacy and Much better Sex” by my friend and colleague Kalinda (and I) is at VenusVortex dot com. The book comes out in June, but getting something out now was a relief from my other projects. Cheers!
Great suggestion! I’ve been committing to an hour a day working on my book project. Sometimes I spend a good chunk of that rereading yesterday’s work and then I feel like I didn’t actually write for an hour so I work a little longer.
I think the trick is do whatever you have to do to sit down and get started! Good to know I’m not the only one who struggles with this!
Just sitting down and getting started … that’s really what it boils down to. 😀
Breaking down tasks into manageable chunks is very helpful. So is leaving cues to remind you. Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit” delves into this, describing the cue, routine and reward that make up habits. Funny you mention flossing. I read somewhere that you should leave your floss next to your tooth brush (cue). Ever since I adopted that, I’ve been flossing daily. Great tips, Demian!
I love the idea of cues. Related, I like to leave “&&” in the location I stopped writing in my document so I know where to go back and start.
Love the everydayness of this analogy, Demian.
You once put it like this:
“It didn’t matter if it was only for 30 minutes, he worked on building his house. Installing a window here, pouring concrete there. Over time a house rose out of the earth. And he did that twice in his own lifetime.”
Great stuff.
I prefer your analogy of flossing to the one I use…elephants. In my office, I have surrounded myself with elephants to remind myself of two important principles. When I’m feeling so overwhelmed that I am paralyzed from making any forward progress, I remember that [sick and wrong] saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” The second principle is related to the seven blind mice and perspectives, but that’s another story.
BTW…my dentist told me that I don’t have to floss all my teeth, only the ones I want to keep. I think there’s possible another related parable there. There is no reward from procrastination or in a partial effort.
Haha, wise dentist, Shelley. Love that.
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Love this. For me it’s not just that one task seems overwhelming, it’s that I find it hard to determine which task is the most urgent amongst a host of tasks. I think this is particularly true when you are, like me, in the earlier stages of a freelance writing career.
I’ve found the pomodoro technique to be really helpful in shooing away that initial indecision before it becomes a monster that consumes the day – 33 mins per task and keep cycling through until everything is done. Slapping a deadline on a task is often the only the way I can give that task, from my errant brain’s perspective, the hue of significance.
I hear you, Jonathan. It’s often prioritizing that’s the most difficult. I find myself juggling different project, then having to ask people for deadlines, and reminding me about milestones I need to meet.
Great idea, Demian!
I have a project I’m working on…it’s overwhelming me, and I don’t know why.
It’s not like I haven’t written a book 🙂
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