In This Episode…
In the second episode of this podcast I shared how I was procrastinating on sorting out my receipts and what I did to overcome that problem. Â I always had a habit of letting them build up over 3 months and then putting off dealing with them ahead of the VAT reporting deadline each quarter.
Well in the third episode I addressed that problem and came up with a solution based on my lessons from my procrastination. Â In this episode I update you on how I am getting on with that solution and reflect on some of the lessons I learnt.
Episode Show Notes
00:26 – I remind you of the problem I was having with dealing with my receipts. You can find the full details of this in the episode “What To Do When You Keep Putting Off A Task You Absolutely Hate“.
01:25 – How I realised I needed to change and what I came up with to make that change. You can find the full details from the episode “Learning From Experience – My Lessons From My Procrastination“.
01:56 – I share how well the system I put in place has worked for me for the last two weeks.
03:15 – The reason I am doing this podcast is to document my journey on developing my own personal productivity. I’ll share what I learn and the challenges I face together with how I overcome them.
04:05 – One of the challenges I had with putting off doing my receipts in the first place, is I did not really understand wha the problem actually was. It took a bit of thinking to realise it was just about not having a good enough system.
04:44 – I explain the principle of friction and how it applies to the tasks we do. Easy tasks can be made difficult with too much friction. Hard tasks can be made much easier (and even enjoyable!) if we reduce friction.
05:58 – Another part of my problem is that I had let things build up instead of chipping away at the task regularly. Not only did this create a larger practical task, it also created a huge mental monster!
06:38 – And the final reason for allowing the problem to build up was a lack of discipline.
07:01 – Because I now have planned exactly when I am going to do the task (0830 every Friday), and I have the discipline to do it, and because the task now has less friction, it gets done!
07:53 – The next step for me is to hand the entire task off to someone else so I can channel my energies into more important stuff.
