Practice Management

What I have found is that there is nothing in this World that you like doing that does not have some displeasurable aspects.  But, you know what?  If you want to do what you like to do, you have to do some of that for which you do not care.  And, you have to do it because it goes to marketing and money.  If you are by yourself there is nobody but you that can do it, and your work product is your marketing and your money machine.

Like you, I get into a funk now and then myself.  Well, Gretchen Rubin has written 6 Tips For Getting Yourself to Do Something You Don't Want To Do.  They are:

1.  Put yourself in jail . If you're working on something that's going to take a long time, and you have the urge to try to rush, or to feel impatient, pretend you're in jail. If you're in jail, you have all the time in the world. You have no reason to hurry, no reason to cut corners or to try to do too many things at once. You can slow down, concentrate. You can take the time to get every single detail right.

2. Ask for help. Why is this so hard? I have no idea. But whenever I ask for help, I'm amazed at how much it...helps.

3. Remember: most decisions don't require extensive research. This is another important Secret of Adulthood. I often get paralyzed by my inability to make a decision, but by reminding myself that often, one choice just isn't that much different from another choice, I can move on.

4. Take a baby step. If you feel yourself dismayed at the prospect of the chain of awful tasks that you have to accomplish, just take one step today. Tomorrow, take the next step. The forward motion is encouraging, and before long, you'll probably find yourself speeding toward completion.

5. Do it first thing in the morning. The night before, vow to yourself to do the dreaded task. And the next day, at the first possible moment - as soon as you walk into work, or when the office opens, or whenever - just do it. Don't allow yourself to reflect or procrastinate. This is particularly true of exercise. If you think you'll be tempted to skip, try to work out in the morning.

6. Protect yourself from interruption. How often have you finally steeled yourself to start some difficult project, only to be interrupted the minute you get going? This makes a hard task much harder. Carve out some time to work. Yesterday, I wanted to put a newsletter sign-up box on my blog. I figured this would be frustrating and time-consuming, so I waited to make the attempt when I knew I had two hours when I could work uninterrupted.