Getting Shit Done
I’ve been told, dear reader, that I’m good at GSD: Getting Shit Done. Let me assure you that it’s not because I’m disciplined or organized; I’m emphatically bad at both these things. I don’t actually recommend my methods (I’m wary of recommending anything to anyone other than myself, frankly) but if you would like to know my secrets, read on, dear friend, because I am happy to share.
Step 1: Choose a lofty, probably unattainable goal with a very short timeline
Now, it’s important to find a goal that is very clearly both lofty and quick. That’s the magic sauce. It can’t be some magnificent goal that you have a year to work up to—that won’t do at all. Optimally, the timeline gives you maybe 1-2 weeks to start and finish the whole damn thing. You’ll know you’ve got it right when you mention your plan to someone and they say, “Are you kidding? In a WEEK?! That’s going to be virtually impossible to finish!” Perfect.
Choosing an almost-unattainable goal is an art. It can’t be completely unattainable (“I will do 100 chin-ups in a row”), or utterly impossible (“I will be Lady Gaga/7 feet tall/a Master Chef by next week”), because deep-down your soul will recognize the impossible nature of the quest and you’ll lose motivation before the end of the first day. I find the sweet-spot for this sort of goal setting is to choose one where any reasonable person would say, “I’m going to get that done by this time next year”. It’s also key for you to think, deep down, that it just might be possible. Like probably not, but maybe.
To summarize: choose a goal that a sensible person would give themselves 6-12 months to accomplish, and give yourself no more than 1-2 weeks to do it; it should also seem near impossible, but wouldn’t it be terribly exciting if you could actually pull it off?
Step 2: The start time must be now
Another key to my highly unorthodox practice of GSD is that the start time must be now. Your almost-unattainable goal must be due in 1-2 weeks from this very moment. It must require a sense of urgency that pulls it to the top of your to-do list: the hourglass has already been turned over and the granules of sand are already falling.
Step 3: You must be blasé about the outcome
This may seem counter-intuitive, but the third key part of this process is that you release any expectation about the outcome. You must hold two conflicting ideas in your mind at the same time: the red-hot pursuit of your goal, and a complete nonchalance about the outcome. If someone was to ask, “But what if it doesn’t work out??” the appropriate reply would be an unconcerned shrug. It should, above all, be approached as a game—a game you are playing very seriously while it lasts, but when it’s over you release the results like any other game: you shake the hands of all participants (namely, your past self) and proclaim it a jolly good match.
Why it works
Now that I’ve written it down, I realize that my process only has these three, quite straightforward, steps. That’s really it. I think the reason it works—or why other people perceive me to be productive when, on a day-to-day basis, I’m really not—is because when this process does succeed (a really small, unlikely off-chance, but a probability none the less) it looks incredibly impressive. Of course, generally the highly-unattainable-short-timeline goal doesn’t work out, but this is the magic bit (for me, at least): no matter the outcome, I generally still leave the GSD Process feeling incredibly accomplished. I look back at everything I did over the past week and I’m surprised at how much I did manage to do. It feels good to have gone for it, full-out.
If you decide to GSD using my unconventional methodology – I’d love to hear about it!
