You arrive at the office, you sit down at your desk and you are all set to work. You know you have a million things to do, so you look at all of your to-do lists and it’s time to decide what you are going to do today.
The good news is that you are the boss. It’s your small business so you can dig into whatever you want to.
The bad news is that today you just feel, well… blah. Nothing is super urgent, nothing looks fun, and actually, there is nothing on your list you feel like doing.
So you think…
Do I need a vacation? No, I just had one last month.
Is there something super bad happening in my life right now that’s got me down? Am I depressed? Not really, in fact, today looks a whole lot like yesterday.
So why do you feel stuck today?
Who knows? Probably could be a million different reasons. But instead of focusing on the problem let’s look at a couple of easy solutions.
How to get unstuck
Step 1: Just pick something – anything.
Pick something on your list that you can finish in a relatively short period of time – say 1 hour. You want to find something that when you’re finished, will give you a bit of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.
Step 2: Just do it.
This is the hard part, especially today when you are feeling stuck. But don’t despair. I have a couple of secrets I am going to share with you that help me when I am in this place.
I have selected what I am going to work on and it’s sitting there staring me in the face. But I have no energy, or desire to do it. Remember, today I have the blahs!
Focus at will
Focus at Will is a music service that is basically background music that helps you focus. It’s not my regular music playlist on YouTube Music that I listen to while cleaning the garage or driving up to Lake Tahoe.
The whole purpose of this music is to help you focus. I don’t know how it works, I just know that it does.
If you go to their website they talk all about the science of why it works, I’m not sure how much real science is involved here, and I really don’t care. All I know is that I turn it on and I can focus and work better.
There are several different focus music categories you can choose from. I found one in particular that work for me called “The Drop”. But you will need to explore and find what works best for you.
Check it out here: focusatwill.com
Time Cube
OK, if you thought listening to random background music to focus was dumb, wait ‘till you hear about this next one!
A time cube is a small plastic cube with numbers on it. You turn the cube over to the amount of minutes you want – and that’s it. The timer will go off after that set period of time. I usually set it for 60 minutes.
You: Jeff! That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard! Your cell phone has a timer on it, there are a hundred timers you can use on the internet, and you can also just look at your watch. Why in the world would you use this dumb block that looks like a kids toy?
Me: I don’t know. The time cube just works and none of the things you just mentioned work for me.
When you turn over the time cube, it’s like you are turning over control of your time to the cube. You no longer have any say as to what you are going to do next. The cube is now the boss. You can’t look at your email, and you can’t go waste time on social media. The time cube is in control and watching you!
For some reason the time cube helps you focus 100% of your energy on the task at hand and you will get it done.
Something funny happens to me almost every time I use the time cube. Remember when I started I was hopelessly UN-focused? When that timer goes off, I am usually so focused and into my task that I am almost mad at it:
SHUT UP TIMER!
Can’t you see that I am totally engaged in this task!!!
To get your own Time Cube, Go to Amazon and search: “Time Cube”.
Now you have a couple new tools to use when you get stuck. These techniques totally work for me, but as with everything, your mileage may vary.
(Disclaimer: I am not connected with either of these companies or products and if you decide to use these tools, I will not be compensated in any way.)
