Productivity Tip #09: Deal With The Obstacles In Your Path [Organize IT]

Stating something might seem easy. You can just pick up a pen and start writing a report, or call a meeting to brainstorm ideas as such as the project proposal comes in. However, due to the scale and complexity of most work nowadays, there are usually so many obstacles in the way that can stop us in our tracks, and its not just limited to business (what’s stopping you breaking that bad habit?). How we deal with these obstacles has a huge bearing on how smoothly we complete our projects. Do you attempt to plough through or do you temporarily turn your attention towards the obstacles to really get them out of the way?

It’s critical that you be proactive in dealing with these obstacles. You could try and ignore them, work around them or just half-heartedly brush them aside, but that very rarely works. It means you have to put more effort in, the problems will linger on your mind and they will have other knock-on effects. A nice analogy to explain it would be a train struck because of a landslide on the tracks. You could move the odd rock here and there to try and let the train through but it’s likely to be a massive chore where the train goes nowhere fast because the track wasn’t clear enough. Alternatively, you can get your team to focus hard on clearing the track properly for a few hours. It might take a little longer, but once it’s done, it’s really done, and the rest of your journey will be smooth and easy.

Apply that analogy to a project that has been stalled by some obstacle (maybe new software hasn’t installed properly, your team doesn’t have the necessary knowledge or you are having financial difficulties). Would you rather try and push through, or put some time aside to really deal with it? Sure, it might feel wrong dropping what your doing to deal with a problem that probably won’t move your project forward, but think about the long term benefits. It’s easier to be productive when the path before you is clear.

Related Posts:

Original post here: James

8 June 2008 | GTD, Productivity, Productivity Tips | Comments

Comments:

  1.  
  2.  
  3.