[This is Part 1 of the “Get It Done Poorly” series. Part 2 here!]
It’s the last week of 2021, so you’re probably thinking of things you need to finish and things you’d like to start (sometimes called New Year’s resolutions).
If there are to-dos in 2021 that you still need to complete (cutting it close!), may I suggest: do a crappy job, and get it done.
But what about the beautiful, stylish, skillful way you want to do it?
Well, that idea is in your head, and if it were easy or doable, it would be outside of your head and done by now. Sure, you can blame yourself, that you’re too lazy or disorganized to get it done. But I would rather blame the task.
It’s too complicated.
Fine, if you must blame yourself: You’ve made the task too complicated.
Make it simple, get it done.
[Side note: I really want to make this into a pithy poem. Something about “sh*t” and “it” rhyming. I can’t quite work it out, but my mind won’t let go of it. So I’m following my own advice and giving you the bare minimum of a poem: “If it’s sh*t, it gets done.”]
But what about performance, excellence, reputation?
If your idea for how you’ll complete a task is so elegant and beautiful that the idea of not doing it that way is a risk to your performance, excellence, and reputation…then the task is too complicated, and it’s never going to get out there.
What’s going to be a bigger problem in your life? Sub-par or zero? Showing up ok, or total absence?
Do 100% of a crappy job, instead of 5% of an excellent job.
I am not giving you a theoretical idea. This is my actual method. I’ll walk you through it. (See also: Lazy Decluttering.)
Problem: Promoting events at a former job used to take me a great amount of time, caused me a great deal of stress, and I was always behind schedule.
I wanted to do it the right way, with an official marketing approach (which I took to include a newsletter) and professional aesthetic. Totally reasonable! But I had no actual marketing training, I don’t enjoy design/layout, and my newsletter platform was extremely hard to use.
I finally started blaming the task instead of blaming myself.
I changed the overly-complicated, overly-idealistic task by asking myself “what is the bare minimum?” What is the bare minimum that I need to do to promote an event?
Answer: The bare minimum to promote an event is launching a marketing campaign, designing a newsletter, and making an event page on social media telling people the date, time, location, and subject.
That’s it. Telling people when, where, and what is the bare minimum for promoting an event. I can send that in an email. The process will take 8 minutes tops.
You might be like me and have a voice in your head saying “that isn’t good enough” and several reasons why. Sure. It could be better. And your mileage may vary with how this approach works with your colleagues and boss.
But what if that bare minimum email never gets sent at all?
What if I have a better version floating in my head that I never send?
Looking back a week later, will I wish I had done the bare minimum? When no one knows about my event, I definitely will.
Looking back at your to-dos from 2021, will you be proud of your grand ideas, or will you wish you had just gotten them done?
Try One Thing:
DO THE CRAP VERSION OF A TASK YOU’VE BEEN AVOIDING
Related: Do You Need to Change Your Space? shows what this method looks like with decluttering.
Did you get it done? Come up with a punchier poem? Let me know!
