Posts Tagged: public commitment

Daily Check-In / Monday Motivation — 1 Comment
29
Sep 08

Yet Another Plan for Productivity (YAPP)

Carrot Cake
Creative Commons License photo credit: tracyhunter

After my post last week, I carefully considered both of the productivity courses I was thinking of taking… and decided to go with “neither.” Why? Because realistically, I already know most of what I need to do and am not doing it, so I think it would be a mistake to spend money on something else at this point.

One of the great things both of those programs offer, though, is daily encouragement. I’m sure the creators of both programs would counter my reasoning for not enrolling with something like, “Everyone struggles with not doing what they know they should do—my program helps you take action with daily motivation!”

So I’m looking to replicate that—on the cheap. Fortunately, I have a few good ideas. They’re a combination of tools, carrot, and stick (though maybe I should say “chocolate” instead of “carrot,” since I don’t actually like carrots… ooh, or “carrot cake”! :) ). Continue reading →

Monday Motivation — 2 Comments
3
Mar 08

Monday Motivation: Let’s Get This Party Started!

I’ve long admired Wendy Piersall’s Monday Motivation concept, and starting this week, I’m going to jump in.

The concept is simple: public commitment (which I call “obligation”) is a powerful motivator. I can harness this power for good by telling you all (okay, since this is my first post, “you all” might be a rather small group, but whatever!) what I’m going to accomplish, and then I’ll be more likely to do it.

Wendy frequently uses either penalties or rewards as additional motivators, but I’m feeling too overwhelmed to add anything else at this point, so we’ll see how a simple public declaration works for me, and adjust as needed.

This Monday

  • I currently have 18 items on my to-do list (and an additional 7 already checked off, woohoo!). As you can imagine, that’s a lot of pressure, but they are all what Covey would call either “important-not-urgent” or “important-urgent”–no busy-work here. So completing this check list is what I commit to do for today.
  • I also commit to update you on my progress before I go to bed.

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link. :)