The work we get hung up on

It may not always be this dramatic, but sometimes it feels that way. (Image by Andri Tegar Mahardika)

Have you ever had a task that lingered on your to-do list so long that it started to resemble a scary container of leftovers from the back of the fridge?

It isn’t always logical which tasks are going to end up moldy. Some of them really don’t take long to do, yet they keep getting passed over and procrastinated on. There’s always something else that is more urgent or appealing.

There are certain commonalities to the kind of work that a lot of us get hung up on.

From David Allen, I learned the importance of defining a task well. A to-do list item that says “Figure out that thing” is destined to be the equivalent of a refrigerator science experiment. It is so nebulous that we’ll never have the patience to sit down and figure out what the heck we’re supposed to do.

Our task may have a prerequisite that we haven’t acknowledged. Once we identify the prerequisite, add that to our to-do list, and get it handled, doing the original task will seem less daunting.

I’ve noticed that I will pass over a task that requires research to complete. Sometimes, there’s research regarding the task itself — like figuring out how to do it or how long it will take. If this preparation hasn’t been done — or I haven’t realized that it needs to be done — I’m going to balk at doing the task, though I might not consciously be aware of why.

We might get a little stuck when we don’t believe that the preparatory work related to a task is truly work. It is helpful to acknowledge that it is. It takes energy and brainpower. It depletes us and takes up time in our day just like the actual deliverables we’re trying to get to. I tend to use stopwatches to track this type of planning work so that it feels more real. When a task comes up that requires planning or prerequisites, I’ll have less resistance to it if all of those pieces have been identified — and if I give myself “credit” for having figured it all out.

In addition to tasks that require lots of prerequisites or preparation, it’s easy to get bogged down by larger projects that we’ve misidentified as tasks. Those that are emotionally or intellectually burdensome can be especially hard to break down into smaller pieces. These might sidetrack us for entire day when we should have limited them to a shorter amount of time or let them go completely. When we see something like this on our to-do list, we instinctively know that it will take hours of work or a lot of emotional energy. Therefore, we are tempted to pass on by.

Giving ourselves a more accurate estimate for how long the work will take allows us to deliberately clear time on our schedule for making it happen instead of expecting ourselves to do it on the fly. This is a strategy I use for renewing my City of Atlanta business licenses, a project I absolutely hate. I set an entire day aside for this work even though it only takes about three hours. I even put it on my calendar. When it’s finally done, I feel incredible.

Another obstacle can be a task’s context. Often, tasks linger when I’m continually encountering them in the wrong context (like only remembering to text a friend when I’m in the shower or about to fall asleep). A busy coffee shop or shared office is the wrong place to make a phone call, and I can’t write a thank-you note if I’m at the office and my stationery is at home. Rearranging my to-dos by context can help me to get the last few pesky items crossed off.

We may face work that requires resources we don’t have, or work that we just plain don’t want to do. These situations require deeper interventions. Perhaps by being aware of some of the dynamics I’ve described here, you will free up a little energy and gumption to tackle the more painful, resistance-triggering work that isn’t so much “unidentified organic material at the back of the fridge” but more “A complicated dish I’ve never cooked before and will be serving tonight to twenty people.” With a realistic sense of what is before you and clearly outlined steps, you can get through it. Best of luck!