Radical Action Plan: A Follow Up

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Last weekend was a very interesting one.  I got everything I wanted accomplished except for the goal “work 30 hours for work.”  I didn’t turn off the phone and my brother called to spend time with me.  We haven’t just “hung out” in months so I said sure as long as I get my goals done.  I spent most of the weekend just doing stuff with him, and I still got my goals accomplished.  I did them way faster than I even thought possible because I knew I wanted to go do stuff rather than take a long time on each goal.  Which really began to make it clear how quickly a person really can accomplish if the crunch is on.

There is a saying that many “high achievers” say.

The Task at hand will expand to fill the time allotted to accomplish it.

This becomes extremely obvious with things like long term homework assignments like speeches and term papers.  I know that whenever I had several weeks to do something, I would put it off until the last day or two and do it all at the end of the allotted time period.   So while I may have been given two weeks to write a speech, I would procrastinate and get it all done within a day or two.

This has become even more obvious in my life as I set goals for myself personally, and I have “interruptions” pop up.  I don’t mean real actual interruptions, but friends or family that would like to get together and who I genuinely want to spend time with.  Without a set schedule, these people know they can call me anytime of the day, and I’ll be around.  I could easily remedy that by turning my phone off from 8-5, however, the interruptions push me to get my projects done much faster than I previously thought I could have done them.

Which leads me to the question:

If I have a goal and I offer myself a very tangible reward following achieving said goal, doesn’t it stand to reason that I can accomplish the goal at a seeming superhuman speed if the reward is tangible enough?

I beleive the answer is yes.  This is something I am interested in testing.  I would like to challenge all of you to test this in your life as well.

I know from personal experience with dieting that if I kept in mind that I would get to cheat on a certain day, I would be more prone to stick to the diet until that day, knowing the reward was coming.  It was this exact thinking that helped me lose over 20 lbs. in 20 days.

Now my question is, can this apply to time management.  Can I “cheat”(play games, go for a drive in the hills, go to the lake, play guitar with friends, or just waste time) if I get my goal accomplished by X:XX time.

I will test this concept over the coming weeks.

Now, I challenge you to find one goal that you are dragging your feet on and ask yourself if you could get it done faster.  Could you get it done by the end of the month?  The week?  The day?  What if there was a big reward, something you really enjoy doing, for accomplishing this goal.  What if you didn’t allow yourself to “cheat” and have that reward until the goal was accomplished?  Could you do it then?

Write down all of the little and big projects you have in your life and pick one that is big, important, and really sapping your energy.  Now set a target and set a reward and see if you can do it.  If you approach it with enough seriousness, I guarantee you could do more than you ever thought you could.

I hope this finds you well,

Ryan

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