In regards to time management and decision making trials…. when I was in high school, I had an Advanced English class junior year, the International Baccalaureate type. I went to a highly academic school that tried to kill me or make be stronger. I was great at English except for when it became time to do a thesis paper. The problems were #1, I only halfway understood the purpose of this type of paper and #2, once I got the point of the purpose, I as a perfectionist, so I had the hardest time just trying to choose a Thesis Statement.
This problem of not being able to make a choice, a commitment to an idea, topic or overall thesis statement kept me from getting past the very first step to creating a paper. My teacher at the time, whom I didn’t really like too much said to me, “You can’t finish this paper if you never start!” and although this seems like the most obvious thing, for me, the statement was ground breaking. I could never start because I was too worried about the outcome of my choice and I would never be able to truly judge the outcome if I never had one. I suffered from, what one person in my life later referred to as, “Analysis Paralysis.” I was too busy trying to be perfect, to actually make any movements at all.
Analysis Paralysis leads to a lot of thinking and very little action, thereby causing every single action you try to take, only take longer and as an effect you find that you finish task just before the bell or even more stressful, too late.
To solve my problem for the thesis paper, I had to solve my two problems and I did. First, I needed to truly come to understand the structure of the thesis paper (do your research), and second, I needed to just do it..start writing, something, anything, everything and weed through it later,( Just try something, GET STARTED! ASAP! commit an action, MAKE a MOVE!). If what I had done didn’t fit, I had time to fix it later unlike when I spent most of my time on thought.
I would type out a bunch of quotes from the books that would seem to fit my topic, things that might be what I was looking for and then at the end I would sift through everything and piece things together to see if they were any good. After I’d gathered the information or the meat of my work, I would come up with a thesis and a title for the dish (the paper). Although here was more action involved, it was easier than trying to guess somewhat blindly. Making a choice without action is like trying to decide if you like the taste of a food by simply looking at it. It cannot be done, although may people convince themselves that it can; one can only guess or infer.
Making a choice is something like coming up with a thesis, you won’t know what the best choice is until you have put some actions behind your thoughts and check out the end result.
For each task, the end result may be different but the concept is the same: Action is required to get started. All of the thinking in the world is meaningless without actions to manifest those thoughts and a postponed choice leads to postponed actions while postponed actions are a sure way to fall short of meeting a deadline.
Figuring out how to get around your dilemma is up to you, but I think joining a community of people who are about moving forward and progressive actions is a good first active step!
For those of you who have not joined yet, click here: www.20somethingUniversity.com
Making a choice is easier said than done, but a result is gaurateed if you make a choice or let it make you.
