Hey everybody, this is Steve. Now it's
getting towards the end of January and
in the UK that means one thing in
particular: that means lots of people
panicking about getting their
self-assessment tax returns done in time!
These people have a rough time of it
every single year. They rush it in at the
last minute, they panic, and they say,
"Never again! Next year I'm gonna get this
done earlier!" But do you know what? Very
often is just not the case. In this
video I want to share with you a really
simple technique that I use and will
help you get things like your tax
returns done, but do you know what, it's
not just about tax returns, this is
actually about ANYTHING that we keep
putting off, maybe work that needs to
have got done,
maybe housework, DIY, this applies to
ANYTHING that we put off.
It's just that tax returns happen to be
a timely and topical example! Now the
reason we put these things off is
probably because we don't enjoy them, and
maybe we even find them a bit
intimidating. Is that your experience
of things? Let me know in the comments.
Also let me know in the comments if you
see other examples of this kind of thing
happening in your world. Anyway I learned
during my university years how
transformative it is to do the
intimidating things rather than avoid
them. You see, up until my second year at
university I was a "do it at the last
minute" kind of guy, "do it just in time",
but the problem is I got ill and I
fell way behind with my studies, and I
mean WAY behind! And it was a real
struggle to catch up from that point, it
was really stressful, and once I got
through that second year I decided I was
NEVER gonna have that experience again,
so in my third year at university I
turned everything around.
I read ahead of the lectures rather than
behind the lectures, and if there was an
assignment to be done, I would do it at
the earliest opportunity not the last
opportunity. I very often went straight
from lecture theater to library to do
that. Now the funny thing is I
remember that third year
as being the least stressful of all my
three years at university. In fact, the
least stressful of all my studying years,
and it's not because I was clever.
I'm not extraordinarily clever. I was
struggling before that point. It was
because I got organized so GET ORGANIZED!
But how? Here's how! With an example! And
the example is that I once had a
coaching client who was complaining to
me that it was the end of January, they
were panicking about their tax return
and they were making excuses. Things like,
the paperwork isn't in order yet, I'm
busy, I have a lot to do, but I sensed
that the real cause of their inertia
because that's what we're talking about
here, INERTIA, the difficulty of getting
moving with things, is because he was
making the task out to be a big rock. Now
the thing about big rocks is that
they're hard to move, they're hard to
accommodate, they're hard to fit into
your schedule, they're just hard! But big
rocks can be broken down into lots of
smaller rocks. In other words every big
project can be reduced to a sequence of
small, simple, unintimidating tasks. So, I
asked, "What is the simplest, smallest
thing you can do towards getting this
done?"
And by the way, the specific way that I
asked that question is important. He
said, "Well, I could fill the first page of
my tax return in," and I said, "No! Even
simpler and smaller than that!" He said,
"Well I could fill the first box in," and I
said, "No, even simpler and smaller than
that!
What is the TINIEST thing you can do
towards this?" And he said, "Well I could
just get the form and put it on my
desk." And I said, "Okay just do that one
thing and then if you feel like doing
the next simplest, smallest thing then do
that. And then if you feel like doing the
next
simplest, smallest thing after that then
do that! And know that you can put this
down at any time. You can stop the
sequence of tasks at any time and go and
do something else, put it down, come back to it
later." He took that advice and he
called me a day later. IT WAS DONE! Now I
know it's not new to break big tasks
down into small tasks, that's old
information, but we forget to do it and
that's why I'm reminding you of it now.
The thing is, turning big tasks into
a sequence of little unintimidating
tasks is it makes it easy to get started.
Knowing that you can put it down at any
time also makes it less intimidating. And
once you get started it becomes easier
and easier and easier to keep doing the
next simple small task in the sequence.
And before you know it, it's done. So if
you really want to get things done then
turn them into a sequence of simple,
small, unintimidating tasks and do the
first one. Now, if you liked this video
please give it a like, it helps other
people see it. Please subscribe to the
channel if you like this kind of content.
My speciality is success with wellness
for professional people, and also let me
know in the comments what your biggest
takeaways were from this. I'd love to
hear from you and I'll reply to as many
comments as possible. Other than that
thank you see you next week.