How to Tackle Big Projects?

As part of my 100 day endeavour I’m trying to improve my initiative-taking capabilities on projects that in the past have been put on the back burner. And that’s what we’ll be sharing this week: big projects and how good we are at taking initiative and getting things done.

Inspiration struck while reading a book about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s marriage– in the section on moving into the White House in 1933, FDR’s first 100 days in office were mentioned. In these 100 days he created more legislation than any other U.S. president has during their first days in office, and by taking action he created hope and change in the midst of the worst years of the Depression. What can I do in 100 days, I wondered. And now I’m finding out.

Before I started I thought about what areas in my life needed remedying, what projects needed starting or completing, what’s holding me back from taking initiative? I didn’t want the main focus to be a huge list of things to do, because there’s no lasting effect from crossing off things on a list. I wanted to see what exactly gets done in a day, and change my very nature into being excited to get more things done. And let’s just say after 14 days of keeping track, late afternoon’s are my kryptonite. It’s hard trying to rewire the brain, to not gravitate towards old habits, to not lose steam.

This weekend I tackled the dirty, dusty and cramped area under the house where some boxed items had been languishing for years. While I was scooting around, sneezing, wrestling musty tarpaulin I wasn’t thinking, “hey look at me getting crap done” – I wasn’t thinking at all, I was simply doing. Was there a huge sense of relief afterwards? Not that I could tell, just an empty space where there used to be a mess. How very zen.

[Img.Src: Hazel Rowley’s book]