How to get rid of "White Rabbit Syndrome"

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

“Ah, my antennae! Ah, my paws! I'm so late, I'm totally late! " - remember where it came from? White Rabbit with a watch on a chain, in a funny jacket and with a completely hysterical intonation in his voice from "Alice in Wonderland" - this is how you seem to yourself at the moment when you are late. And when you are late more and more often and everywhere - this is a sign that something needs to be changed. Let's try to give a couple of simple recommendations on this matter.

1. Set the alarm 15 minutes earlier, and the clock - 15 minutes ahead

So what if you wait for the person with whom you have an appointment, interview or negotiations. Life teaches that at the most inopportune moment there will be a traffic jam, an accident, the electricity in the house will get stuck, the elevator will get stuck, the trams will stop running, the taxi will not get through, and the favorite motorcycle will stall (and a lot more will happen on this decisive day / moment / year) … Before especially important meetings and events, it is not bad to throw in half an hour of the head start.

2. Create reminders for yourself

Any smartphone has built-in reminders, alarms and timers. Use them: stop looking for some abstract ideal software, with the help of which - by pressing just 1 button - you can suddenly remember and control everything. Your phone's designers have already made it smart enough to help you plan your day properly. Why are you still looking for some difficult way not to forget anything?

3. To-do lists, "tomatoes" and a notepad

Earlier, I have already touched upon the reasons why a paper notebook easily makes all mobile planners and software gadgets for working with tasks. If you are adamantly against unnecessary paper in your home, find yourself a software equivalent. The desktop version is not suitable - try the mobile one. None of this works - install the app with a 25 minute time control interval (or just use your regular iPhone / Android timer, it will do too). Just do not look for excuses why you are stupid for half a day in front of the turned on screen - and you cannot do 2 simple tasks in any way. Low motivation, procrastination and unloved work - that's all the explanation. And not at all the fact that “this application is inconvenient for me, I don’t like this application, but for this I am sorry to pay $ 2”.

4. Ask people to remind of themselves more often

I know what a blockage is at work. Even before entering the industry, where 90% of all tasks, cases and work itself exist exclusively in the form of numbers, letters, tables and pictures on the screen. Often, the blockage is not provoked by you, but by the rest of the people around you. Remind about yourself to those who "got bogged down and forgot". Ask them to remind of themselves too if they need something constructive and effective from you. Not too intrusive, no more than 1 time per day - but remind me when it comes to important tasks. People tend to forget, to score, and generally to be late: the world is not ideal, and it is not your task to remake it. It's cool if you find people who stick to deadlines, commitments, and the word. But this will not always be the case. Therefore, a reminder (in the form of a timer, call, letter, or just a message on Skype) is normal.

5. Do 1 task in 1 hour

Multitasking is not an empty phrase or a buzzword. Long gone are the days when a person came to work, sat down at the table, opened a form, put on oversleeves - and for 1 day sorted out 1 pile of papers and dealt with 1 topic. Nobody works like that for a long time. Calls, meetings, texts, a lot of texts, several projects, three different editions and three editor-in-chief, and one you - this is normal (checked on yourself:)). But if you don't want to get confused or go crazy, finish 1 task from beginning to end in 1 hour. Turn in 1 text. Translate 1 article. Write 1 work plan. Call people for 1 interview. If you work 5-6-8-10 hours a day, do 5 things better, regardless of the term, but with high quality, than 10-20 - but not to the end. Each day should have a minimum of 3-5 completed 100% tasks. Keep them small. Let them be intermediate. But they must be 100% fulfilled.

And the main thing: The White Rabbit was constantly fussing and nervous. Don't stir up panic. Anyone who panics a lot and talks a lot about how much they have to do today is actually just exquisitely procrastinating and nothing else.