When it comes to getting things done, I love the idea that there are two parts of you: a planner and a doer.
The planner is the part that works out what to do. The doer is the part that actually does it.
Your planner has the wisdom of a sage. The insight of Gandalf. It’s brilliant at seeing what matters and mapping out a path.
The mistake we make when it comes to our planner is not giving it the space and time to do its best work. To figure out what we really want, and how to get it.
The doer, on the other hand, has the temperament of a 3-year-old. It’s wired for instant gratification, for feeling better now. Spend five minutes with a toddler and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
We’re still like this; we just hide it better. And we do a bit better at using willpower to suppress it.
It is possible to get a 3-year-old to do things… but it takes cajoling, bribes, threats, and the lack of better options.
The mistake we make when it comes to our doer is forgetting that it’s our inner 3-year-old.
You wouldn’t sit a 3-year-old down next to an iPad and a box of chocolates and say, “ignore these and get on with your drawing.”
But that’s what we do to ourselves.
We say to our doer: here’s a project that’s going to take focus. Ignore your phone. Ignore the internet. Ignore all the fun stuff you could do right now. Now get to work.
And then we beat ourselves up for dropping the ball.
So … breaking my golden rule of only one point per blog, here are two takeaways.
Give your planner time and space to do its job.
Set your doer up to win at its job. Box it in, cajole it, and take away all the better options.
