When you had a paper due at 2pm, you got it in on time. Whether it was for your professor or your boss, there was outside pressure.
Today however, many of your goals today are only due to yourself. With no one watching over your shoulder, will you have the motivation and drive to complete something tough?
Let me give you two examples of creating commitment. After, we'll go through some tips to ensure you leave with a way to easily implement a fool proof system.
At Home Example: Organizing the Garage I'd really wanted to organize the garage but it took about six months to get started. Once I finally did, it only took about five hours because I recruited a friend to help. My friend and I decided to have a "Project Weekend"--she'd help with my stuff on Saturday and I with hers on Sunday. We scheduled it a month in advance and we both followed through.
Now my garage is organized and squeaky clean. At her place, I helped install lights and build furniture. As a bonus, we actually had a lot of fun.
At Work Example: the Buddy Call I run a small business and there are many tasks I want to work on (like blog posts) that don't have solid deadlines. A couple years ago I started a twice monthly check-in call with a colleague who also runs a small business. We discuss our highs, lows, accomplishments, and goals for the next couple weeks
Since we look up to each other and know we'll be checking in, it motivates us to get things done. Two added benefits:
- Together we'll often find better ways to approach a particular goal
- We now have someone to discuss revenue, employees, and other topics that are often confidential or taboo
Above were very specific examples of how I involved others to add commitment to my goals. By involving others, you are putting yourself on display and therefore, there are people watching to add motivation.
Here are some more general tips that can help you to stay more accountable for the projects you seem to constantly avoid:
- Commit to an outside deadline - if you can tie in your goals with existing schedules, you'll more likely finish. You might try scheduling a party at your house if you want to get unpacked or clean up, registering (and paying for) a business plan competition if you want to get the plan written, or signing up for a class in the skill you want to learn--both monetary and social commitments will help you to follow through
- Schedule a time with someone else to work together - like my "Project Weekend," a scheduled time with someone else can accomplish wonders and be a lot of fun. It's always great if you can return the favor, too
- Set a reasonable deadline, and continually tell others about it - the more often you discuss your deadline the more you'll start believing you can meet it. This will also help to create pressure, which will be furthered if you...
- Announce your goal in a large forum - nobody likes to fail for the world, so announce your ambition on your blog, newsletter, mass email, gathering of friends, or at a company meeting.
- Join a community involved in similar goals - if you're surrounded by people starting up businesses, taking photos, speaking Spanish, or whatever your goal is...that'll help motivate you to do the same
- Find a collaborator for your project - if you're worried about getting it done on your own, allow others to participate so you can motivate each other to succeed. This is more than just working together, this will help to share the responsibility
- Create a competition - put a significant value (monetary, a trip, a favor, etc) on your respective goals. For instance, if you were trying to improve the number of readers on your blog, you could find a blogger in a similar position and compete for the first to get 1000 subscribers...with the loser paying for the other's ticket to a major blogger conference. Look for someone who is in a similar place and create a real competition that you can both take seriously
You may be a motivated hard-worker, but outside pressure and competition will help you to act faster.
How do you keep your eyes on the project despite the lack of motivation?
- Jared
译文:
确保计划完成的7大妙招
如果一个文件的截止时间是下午2点，你会准时完成这项任务。不管该文件是给教授的还是给老板的，这都属于外部压力。
但在今天，许多目标想要达成只能靠自我管理。没有人在背后监督你，你还会有动力去啃一些硬骨头吗？
我先举两个例子吧，关于责任感的建立。之后，我们再来看几个小贴士，它们能够确保你很容易地完成一项任务，而且不会出现任何差错。
例一（在家里）：整理车库
我真的很想整理一下车库，但过了将近半年的时间我才开始动手整理。然而一旦着手去做，整件事情却只用去大约5个小时。因为我雇了个朋友来帮忙。我和朋友决定过一个“劳动周末”--星期六她来帮我干活，星期天我去帮她。我们提前一个月做好安排并都照着去做。
现在我的车库既干净又整齐。在她那里，我帮她安装电灯，制造家具。事实上，我们都从中获得了很多乐趣，这也算是一种奖励吧。
例二（工作中）：老友来电
我经营着一家小企业，许多我想做的事情都是没有固定期限的，比如在博客上发帖子。几年前我开始接到一个同事每个月两次的“检查”电话，这个同事也有自己的小生意。我们在电话里说这说那，聊大事小事，谈已取得的成绩和下几个星期的目标。
我们彼此尊敬，并且知道对方会打电话来例行检查，因此我们都赶着把事情安排得妥妥贴贴。
这样做有两个额外的好处：
* 我们经常能一起找到达成某个特定目标的最佳路径
* 现在我们都能有个人来和自己讨论税收、雇员，还有别的通常来说比较私密和禁忌的话题了。
以上两个例子都非常典型，你可以看到我是怎样把其他人容纳进来，给我的目标增加更多要承担的责任的。接纳了别人，你就在把自己展示给他。这样，就有人看着你来给你更多激励了。
下面再给几个常见的小贴士，可以帮助你对自己似乎一直在逃避的任务承担更大的责任：
设定一个外部期限-如果把自己的目标和现有计划捆绑在一起，就更有可能实现它。当你想打开箱子或是整理房间时，可以试着在家里开一个party；想把计划写出来，就参加一次商务策划比赛（要付钱呶）；或者报个班学习你很想学的技能--金钱和社会责任都可以帮助你坚持到底。
安排时间和别人一起工作--就像我的“劳动周末”一样，和别人预定好时间有助于你实现一些想法，并且从中获得乐趣。要是作为回报，你也去给别人帮忙，那就再好不过了。
设定一个合理的期限，并不断把它告诉别人--你越经常和别人谈论最后期限，就越相信任务能被按时完成。这样做也会进一步给你施加压力，如果你...
在一个大论坛里宣布你的目标--不管怎样没有人喜欢失败，所以在博客里说出你的抱负吧，时事周刊、群发邮件、朋友聚会，甚至是在公司的会议上，都可以将你的目标宣布出来。
参加有共同目标的社会团体--如果你处在一群人中间，这些人创业、照相、说西班牙语，或做你想达到的任何目标...和他们在一起可以激励你去做同样的事。
为你的计划找一个“同党” --如果你担心一个人去做这件事，那就让别人也加入进来。这样你们就能彼此促进获得成功了。这样做要远胜于单纯地在一起工作，因为它有助于责任共担。
进行一场比赛--在你的各个目标上设定一个有效值（钱，旅行，支持，等等）。譬如，假设你正设法提高博客的阅读量，你可以找一个状况相似的博主进行比赛，看谁的博客的浏览人数最先达得1000人...输的一方要请另一方去参加大型的博客会议。去找个和你情况类似的人，开始一场两个人都认真对待的真正比赛吧。
可能你在工作中表现积极，勤奋努力，但外部的压力和竞争能让你的行动更加迅速。
在缺少动力的情况下，你会怎样坚持自己的计划呢？
-杰瑞德