Do you ever find yourself thinking what if I do just one more thing?
You are in the middle of doing something and there are moments when you have some time. You can just day dream and procrastinate, or you can do one thing in that time frame and knock something off your to do list.
How it looks
Well, it is time for dinner and you know what is planned and are ready to start.
You have food in the fridge and pantry and you begin to chop the vegetables. Do you only prep the amount you need today or do you do more and have that work done for tomorrow.
Doing that one extra thing will help you out tomorrow.
While dinner is cooking do you just stand there watching or do you clean up and get little tasks done while you wait.
Of course with children in the home time is never lost on having things to do.
Find yourself having cleared up and not enough time to get large tasks done you are now thinking what can I do that takes a minute or two and I can tick it off the list now?
Wash the empty rice container as you used the last of it for dinner. Have it clean and dry to fill up with the new rice you bought.
Mini tasks to have on your list
Waiting for a phone call or for someone to get back to you suddenly gives you time to think what can I do to feel productive?
Cleaning the table and collecting the paperwork or letters that arrived.
I can do just one thing. I can feel productive and get things done.
The downside of this
Of course it can also be seen as a way of putting off doing things that you have not wanted to do. You need to clean the bathroom but you suddenly find yourself doing so many little things instead of facing what needs to be done.
You just want to do one more task. Are you actually doing it properly or just distracting yourself from the task that you don’t want to do? Now, that is a good question.
If you find yourself also thinking ok I can do one more thing and it is actually slowing down your progress then maybe it is time to only do one more simple thing.
Don’t let your dinner burn because you are just doing 10 more things and not just one.
One more thing at work
Does this apply in a work situation? Yes, of course it does. We all have tasks and responsibilities at work or when running your business. There are deadlines and time sensitive tasks that have to be done. Who else has been in that moment of ok I have done so much up to now and if I do one more thing right now it will help me out later. I will get it done and move on from it.
How many times does one more thing actually lead to many more things and you end up down a rabbit hole and away from those time sensitive tasks that had to be done.
Maybe it is time to focus on doing only one more thing and keeping to that. Deciding what that simple task is and only doing that. Not starting something that deep down inside you know will really take so much longer.
The art of doing just one more thing
We all lead busy lives and have a lot we have to do. The to do list seems endless with more things added on quicker than you can remove them.
Getting things done is what we are all trying to do. Squeezing one more task in may seem like the logical thing to do however it doesn’t always work out like that.
Maybe we need to think about which one more thing we are going to do and if it is actually benefiting us positively and not leading us down the procrastination route.
Set yourself a challenge to do one more thing and stick to one more thing and see how it goes. Use your time wisely and become more productive. Looking at things in a different way can feel like a breath of fresh air.
If that one more thing helps you out then it is a win. Who couldn’t do with some wins in their lives.
Check out the post here and find the list of things you can do in one minute.
