Wow! My previous post about the Go Micro approach hit a nerve! I received many kudos about keeping expectations low and consistency high by dedicating a very small chunk of time to the same task every day.
When you are trying to accomplish a big task or create a new habit, you’ve got to start small – keep expectations low (10 minutes each day, every day, if that’s all you can stand), ridiculously low if necessary, to gain traction. Go Micro and you may want to extend that stint of time and finish sooner with greater accuracy. You asked for an example and here it is:
Charles, a wannapreneur from Minnesota with a background in construction, wanted to pass the real estate exam and get his license. He has ADHD and always struggled with lengthy reading material and big projects. We agreed that the least amount of reading he could tolerate every day, stress-free, would be 15 minutes. He set a timer and put in only 15 minutes; it was easy, some days he went to 20-25 minutes without effort. He never missed a day. That was in November.
Charles gradually increased his tolerance for reading by 10-15 minutes each week. Now he is up to 1.5 hours a day twice a day and ready to take the exam. The Go Micro approach not only helped him prepare well for the exam, but it increased his interest in the material, plus he learned a method for managing big projects.
Bart M. a software developer and an entrepreneur from Toronto, Canada wrote, “Rebecca, what I love about the Go Micro approach is that it is resistant to the fluctuations that cause me to resist working on a difficult project. No matter the weather, what mood I’m in or the quality of my sleep, I can still crank out that small window of time every day. It all adds up and I feel like I’m making huge progress! Go Micro!”
Lauren, a financial planner and solopreneur in Florida who does much of her own office work, exclaimed, “I Go Micro on a few tasks a day. Until I can afford to hire more help, just a small amount of time spent on each of the four tasks I need to do daily keeps the piles of work under control. Gone are the days when I would expect myself to spend an entire afternoon just cold calling or researching. That just doesn’t work for me.”
Do you want to Go Micro? Get things done, done well and on time? Let me help you get started! Contact me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com.
Let’s say that you need to finish a business plan in 6 weeks. Just the thought of it may be overwhelming, but it’s a necessary task within a reasonable amount of time. Unless you are highly pressured and super motivated to crank it out within days, I suggest you Go Micro.
Here’s how. Pick the smallest chunk of time you know you could muster to devote to the task every day. Is it 10 minutes? 15 minutes? One hour? The duration of time doesn’t matter; you want consistency, so keep it on the short side.
For this example, let’s assume that you could easily carve out a half hour every day to work on the business plan which has 6-8 sections. Take that first day (just a half hour) and skim each section. You might use that half hour to mark the easy sections and double checkmark the sections that will take some research. Stop after a half hour. If you want to go longer, fine.
The next day, again hold yourself to just another half hour to focus on one section that is easy to complete. If you want to go longer, go ahead. If you can manage just a half hour every day, that’s 3.5 hours of work in one week and possibly two sections, or a quarter of the plan, completed! At that point, you may find that a half hour a day is just right; it is a pace you can sustain to easily meet the 6 week deadline, so stick with it. However, if you find a half hour a day to be too easy, add another 15 minutes to that half hour. Then, working at 45 minutes a day, you’ve got 5.25 more hours done by week’s end.
You can Go Micro with most any BHAG ( Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and make significant progress, often in less time than you imagined.
Not every task has an obvious step-by-step system for completion, and you may have many projects to complete simultaneously. You can still Go Micro, but you may need some coaching to get started. Happy to help − Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com
After tonight’s killer boot camp, the instructor announced that between January and March a flood of new, resolute members will descend upon the gym. We were asked to be patient and encouraging to new members. She assured us that, come mid-March, our class size will normalize with only a few new members remaining.
Why does this happen? Combine the pressure to regularly get to the gym, to be patient and accepting of oneself, and to tolerate too much discomfort too fast causes the high New Year’s Resolution crash and burn rate. These admirable, super-sized intentions are a great strain on one’s limited willpower reserve. What results is a sense of failure and another blow to one’s self-esteem. How can you avoid this? If you are thinking about any New Year’s resolutions for you and your business, I advise you to plan first and then “go micro.” Ask yourself:
Which new habit would have the greatest impact on your family and your business?
What would you gain from your new habit? And conversely, what will you lose by not following through with this resolution?
How will you break down your resolution into micro steps making change more gradual, least uncomfortable, noticeable and worthwhile?
Do you need a coach or a partner to motivate you and monitor your progress?
Jess, a 40 year old founder of a small home furnishings company, wanted to keep her meetings under 20 minutes. Her meetings typically ran over 40 minutes. She knew that shorter, more efficient meetings would yield greater productivity for her team, plus she’d get home earlier to her family at night. She tended to address topics off the top of her head and over talk. Jess recognized that her poor planning and gift of gab were problems. After previous failed attempts to stick to the 20 minute limit, I suggested we chose just three micro steps and apply one at a time:
1) prioritize the top 2-3 topics for the meeting
2) write out the key talking points , and
3) have an analog clock in view so as to pace herself.
Interestingly, Jess reported that the analog clock was the most helpful step in staying on track. She remarked, “I got a sense of what 20 minutes felt like and what I could reasonably accomplish in that span of time.”
These small steps improved other inefficiencies such as: dependency on Jess to remember the main points, her over-talking and wasting time. Three meetings later, after applying a micro step at a time, the new habit was in place. The benefits of the micro approach? Staff demonstrated 20-30% better follow through, there was less confusion about priorities and next steps, attendance at meetings increased resulting in better staff connection, and Jess was getting home sooner. Resolving to a micro step approach can make a New Year’s resolution stick.
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Wow! My previous post about the Go Micro approach hit a nerve! I received many kudos about keeping expectations low and consistency high by dedicating a very small chunk of time to the same task every day.
Let’s say that you need to finish a business plan in 6 weeks. Just the thought of it may be overwhelming, but it’s a necessary task within a reasonable amount of time. Unless you are highly pressured and super motivated to crank it out within days, I suggest you Go Micro.
"It takes more than courage to be an Entrepreneur, it takes CORE."