Peace of Mind Organizing

Commitments

12 August 2008

Deadlines used to rule my life. When I was making my living as a writer, deadlines were absolutely everything. I didn’t start a story earlier than necessary to make my deadline. I don’t think in 12 years (and well over a hundred articles, along with eight books) I turned anything in early.

This is nothing to brag about. It was just a fact of life for me as a writer. So now that I don’t have the deadlines in my life that I once did, how do I get anything done?

When I was a writer, deadlines were how I kept my commitment to others. Now, as a business owner, I need to make commitments to myself in order to make things happen. Occasionally, I’ll use my blog to make them publicly. But essentially, deadlines have been replaced by commitments, which I think is a healthy shift.

Case in point: the Knitting Olympics. I set up the challenge and commitment to myself to knit the remaining six lace squares in my Learn-to-Knit Afghan during the time of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It doesn’t sound like that much, but these squares were so challenging they’d brought progress on my afghan to a screeching halt. I knew getting over the hump of the lace squares would not only help me learn to knit lace, they’d get me to the point where I’d finish this large project, which I began back in February 2006.

I trained by knitting the Branching Out scarf and starting on the Estonian Garden Wrap in the week or two prior to the Olympics. I think that was essential because I got used to the rhythm and challenges of lace.

And guess what? I’m racing through my challenge. I’ve completed four of the six lace squares and am 25 percent of the way through the fifth. It’s very clear I’ll have no problem finishing what I set out to do, so I’m going to up the ante: Right here and now I’m moving the finish line. I will now consider the Knitting Olympics a success when I finish all the squares of the afghan by the end of the Olympics (that will be a total of 13 squares). What a thrill that will be!

Another way that making a commitment has paid dividends is in the frequency of my blog posting. Back on March 22, 2007, I blogged about how hard it was for me to post because I lacked a deadline. In that entry, I committed to posting twice a week. That lasted about two weeks. I don’t know if it’s because twice a week wasn’t frequent enough or if I just didn’t believe the commitment.

Fast forward 12 months. On March 18, 2008, after hearing Michael Neill state on his podcast that he’s found it’s easier to write on a daily basis than a weekly basis, I decided to give it a try. I committed to blogging five days a week.

I haven’t always kept that commitment, but since then I’ve almost always posted at least four days in a week. Here’s my Don’t Break the Chain chain for blog posting:

The purple squares indicate the days I blogged

And you know what? It really has been easier for me to post daily than it was when I didn’t have any real commitment to frequency. I’ve noticed that blog traffic has certainly increased since I started doing this.

My challenge to you is to identify something important, but not urgent, that you’ve been wanting to do. Then make a commitment to yourself to make it happen in a certain period of time. See what a difference a serious commitment to yourself can make!

Tagged with: accountability, commitments, deadlines, don't break the chain, knitting olympics, writing

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