Business author Robert Ringer (love his work) talks about a strategy he uses to get things done as a busy businessman.
When I read it, I identified with it immediately. See if you share our tendency to "peck away" at multiple tasks in the busy business day:
Like all busy people, I can never hope to get around to getting everything done that I'd like to do. As a result, I have a tendency to work on many projects simultaneously - especially if they're tedious in nature. This runs the gamut from moneymaking projects of major importance to organizational and tidying-up tasks.
For example, if I have to review and make revisions to a contract, I might work on it a half-dozen times a day, 10 to 15 minutes at a crack. Since I intensely dislike this kind of work, it's hard for me to find - or make - the time to do it from start to finish in one sitting.
While I'm working on the contract, I might also be running "Disk Cleanup" or "Defrag" on my computer. And then I might listen to, and take notes for, a CD that needs editing, perhaps in segments of 15 to 20 minutes. From there, I might work on another draft of an article such as this one. And so on.
In a way, I guess this makes me a bit of an enigma, because I'm usually a very focused person. I always have one major project that I spend a majority of my time on each day, and I'm relentless about following such projects through to conclusion.
What I do, however, is take periodic breaks from my main project and
peck away at anywhere from five to 10 other projects. The result is that a project I may never have "found" the time to do all at once ends up getting completed over time.
My approach to pecking away at projects is somewhat related to a Japanese strategy for achieving goals. The strategy I'm referring to is known as kaizen, and is summed up well in Lao Tzu's oft-heard observation, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step."
So, I guess my Peck-Away Theory is really another way of "making the time." It's just that I make the time to do many things rather than just one. You might want to give it a try and see how it fits on you. It's not for everybody, but it's worked out very well for me.
It works for me, too. When you choose to go out on your own and build a business from the ground up (or multiple businesses, in my case!) you better learn how to multi-task well in order to be successful.
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