Over-Committing

I was listening to a segment in Tim Ferriss‘ book Tools of Titans, and heard him talk about starting a fitness plan by doing just one pushup per night.

 

 

 

You can watch him talk about this in a short reel on Facebook here.

 

Now, on the surface that might sound ridiculous.  But on the other hand, starting a program with a ridiculously easy goal might not be such a bad idea.  That might do two things:

1. Build up your confidence and commitment to doing anything.
2. When you actually do the one pushup, you might actually decide to do a few more.

 

This is similar to another technique I’ve heard and often promoted to clients, sometimes called the 15 minute power focus:

• Take a task you are avoiding and commit to working on it for just 15 minutes.
• You give yourself complete permission in advance to stop at the end of the 15 minutes.

 

There are very few things that are so bad we can’t work on them for just 15 minutes.  And it’s surprising how much you can accomplish in just 15 minutes.  Plus what often happens is that you get in the zone and decide to keep going at the end of the period, getting even more accomplished.  But even if you stop, you feel a sense of accomplishment because you got some work done on that task you’ve been avoiding.

 

I find that over-committing can often get in the way of actually committing what is important.  And when you over-commit and then don’t achieve what you set out to do, that creates disappointment in yourself that can create a negative spiral, interfering with both setting and achieving goals in the future.

 

A colleague blogged recently about a method for setting achievable goals, and gave what I thought was a very practical approach.  You can read about her technique here.

 

So, what techniques have YOU used to avoid over-committing (beyond just refusing to commit to anything in the first place, of course)?  Leave a comment below.