How To Work Through Challenges And Get Stuff Done

Can you imagine a day where you checked off everything on your to-do list without any problems or interruptions? Wouldn’t that be a nice change? But truthfully these days are quite rare. When we hit a roadblock it’s important to remember it happens to us all!

In fact problems are a normal part of the process. It’s all about how you deal with them.

Here are a few of the more common hang ups and how to move past them:

Denial: Do you ignore a problem when it arises?  Me too!I  I’m naturally a procrastinator, so I’m inclined tell myself “It’s nothing!” or “I’ll have time to address it down the road.” Especially if it’s a large task, or something I don’t want to do. Since I know these are my usual ways of ignoring a problem, I can recognize them and deal with them.

Make sure to pay attention to your own personal ‘tells’ so you can stop bad habits before they happen. If you are in denial, try writing a list of all the things you need to do to complete that day. You might surprise yourself and find that it’s easier than you think.

Giving Up: In an attempt to reorganize a part of your life let’s say you’ve introduced a new system or started using a new app. Some people will give up and act defeated the second it doesn’t work exactly as planned. While others double down and insist on trying to make a broken system work. But there’s no need to do either!

If something is not working for you it’s okay to give up, as long as you try something new. It may take a few attempts until you find the thing that works for you.  Give a new system or app at least two weeks though before ditching it.

Frustration: Once I’ve recognized an issue, it’s easy to get frustrated and want to give up. It’s why I use the Pomodoro Technique and take a 5 minute break for every 20 minutes (or 15 minutes) of work. It stops me from getting bogged down by my workload and getting irritated over big tasks.

Isolation: There are some of those projects that can feel like they are too much to handle, and I’m all alone with them.  Like when I wrote my book Listful Thinking — it was extremely isolating.

But there are always friends and coworkers with a fresh perspective to tap. It’s easy enough to shoot them a quick email asking for advice or for some accountability. Friends are great for a quick confidence boost or thinking up new ideas. So if you’re cleaning out your closet or bookshelf, call in a friend to help, as long as you reciprocate when they need help.

Acceptance: Hooray! After you finally address a problem head on, you’re done! Once you finish a tasks take a moment to relax before moving onto the next one. You could even treat yourself a cup of tea!

Like anything new, getting more organized can be a frustrating experience if you don’t know what it’s supposed to look like. Remember it’s okay to be frustrated as long as you have a plan to work through it.

How do you work through challenges?