Stop Wasting Time and Energy
Sometimes it’s really frustrating when it takes a week of research and testing in order to complete a project that should take only 2 hours… But I’m reminded of a saying my brother told me the other week: “Stop trying to be a salmon and just go with the flow.” Though this may sound lazy and unproductive, it actually makes you more productive in the end.
By eliminating the stress and frustration factors, you have more concentration to focus on the actual task at hand, rather than wasting your energy on the workload itself.
Remember when you were in school and everyone would complain about how long an assignment would take? And after a good hour of complaining and just staring at what you need to do, the “goody two shoes” of the class already finished the entire assignment… This is the type of wasteful energy I’m talking about. Instead of wasting energy being frustrated, that person was able to get the work done and move onto other things.
This goes for more than just school assignments or tasks at work. This idea of just focusing on the task at hand can be applied to all aspects of life, especially sports. I’ve been in the sport of diving for 14 years and have represented Canada around the world. One of the main things I’ve learned quickly is how to ignore the stress of a big competition; whether it be your first national competition, international competition or even your first Olympics. Now obviously this is something easier said than done. I can’t imagine treating your first Olympic competition like a regular regional meet or even a regular practice, however, the key point is to focus on the specific task at hand rather than the whole picture.
It’s crazy how many divers have their life’s worst performance during their first senior international competition. Is this because they all of a sudden are incapable of performing their dives? Of course not. It has everything to do with the fact that you’re on the board, heart pumping faster than normal and you’re thinking “Oh god. Don’t mess up. Show everyone you know how to do this.” Instead of thinking of the specific technique you need to do on this dive: “Ok. Make sure you get your arms all the way up on the end of the board before throw down to grab your legs.” Now don’t get me wrong; I’m no expert at this and actually had my life’s worst performance at my first big International competition at Rostock, Germany.
So how do you learn to suppress your stress and procrastination? I find that nothing works better than the oldest saying in the world: “Practice makes perfect.” I find that working out in intense situations (such as I did when I was diving) helps to handle stress. I discovered CrossFit, a new method of working out using functional movements at high-intensity really helps out with getting things done in life. This allows you to get into that “oh god I don’t wanna do this” situation three to five times a week and teaches you to just buckle down and get it over with. I found it so useful, that I opened my own Crossfit gym in Ottawa.
It’s amazing how with the development of a “just get it done” attitude, how much more efficient you can become in your life. Go ahead; give it a try. I challenge you!
David Kalec is a developer at MediaMiser.
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