The Smallest Next Step

When you can’t think of what to write, write.  I’ll be very blunt with you, I have no plan for the words that will come next from my brain to the keyboard. I just know that sitting and staring at the page well, that’s called staring at the page and what I’m doing now is called writing (typing).

“Just punch the damn keys!” as Sean Connery’s character says in Finding Forrester.  It’s damn true. It’s true of so many things. Punch the damn keys, start moving, get going, make momentum.  This is true for so much of life.  

Want to write poetry, start writing poetry. Want to make a song, start making a song.  

What is the next physical action?

David Allen talks about asking yourself “What is the next physical action?” (On this project or task) This is just so true it needs to be tattooed on most of our hands to remember to ask it all the time.

What is the next physical action on starting a business? (It’s not buying a domain name that’s for sure!)  What’s the next physical action on your job application?

Well, I’ll tell you what it isn’t: “Apply for job.”  This is not an action, applying for a job is a series of actions and steps.
Here’s a series of next actions: Open laptop, open google drive, search for “resume.”  These are things you can physically do.  Essentially if it’s not as specific as that, then our brains will not be able to tolerate it. ESPECIALLY not at scale.

Everything is at scale these days. To do lists, content coming at us from all sides, alerts, spam phone calls and on and on.  Your brain needs you to treat it as it is, not as you wish it were. 

What happens when your brain sees the words “Apply to job”? Your mind probably starts breaking that into smaller tasks, but sometimes this turns into overwhelm because all those tasks (physical actions) can not be done ALL AT ONCE!

So ask “What is the next physical action?”

So here’s the thing, you might say “When I go for a run I don’t write down on my to do list ‘put on running shoes’ I just write ‘Go for a run.’”

Yes of course, this makes sense if you have gone for a run numerous times before, then your brain knows what to do. It doesn’t need you to write the next physical action.

What if you are going for your first run ever? Or your first run in a long time?  Then you may well need to write down: “Look for my running shoes in the closet.”

This helps with creative tasks, this helps with overwhelm. You’ll also be surprised by how many actions you can learn to no longer do in order to get things going.