An Old Record Player

I really like this imagery… imagine an old record player, and on it a record. Maybe you’ve never seen one except in the movies. One of the many reasons this method of playing music gave way to newer technologies was because of this thing that would happen if the record was scratched in the wrong way, where instead of the needle being able to follow the groove of the record all the way out to the edge, a groove would loop and play over and over again, turning it into a rut. With the transition to cassette tapes this problem went away, replaced by some others, but then later resurfaced from time to time in scratched CDs. Nowadays we have mp3s and other digital formats that rarely skip or fall into a rut unless something is really wrong with the device playing it. All of this to say, sometimes in our work we feel like we are moving along with the natural flow of things, like that needle moving slowly to the edge of the spinning record, and other times we feel like we’re just repeating the same patterns over and over again with no apparent progress or movement.

Broken Record Syndrome

A few days ago I was having a conversation with Rachel, my wife, about how I felt stuck with many of my weekly activities. I felt like I had hit a ceiling and wasn’t able to produce more than I had been already and that things didn’t seem to be fresh and growing like they used to be. I was also consistently burning more time producing content than I really had to spend, and was consistently late in meeting my own delivery deadlines. This kept repeating week after week. I was experiencing broken record syndrome. I was in a rut. In our meeting we spent some time evaluating my work habits and daily flow, and I wanted to share with you some of the valuable things that came out of our conversation that day.

The Danger of “Day-Of”

One of the major shifts that I needed to make was in my writing schedule. For a long time, for whatever day I had an article or newsletter, or some other written content going out, I would just write that morning. I did okay with the deadlines at first, but after awhile I began to run past the deadlines. This didn’t matter so much to my followers as long as it got to them that day, but for me it would cut into time I needed to work on projects, take care of administrative stuff or even my personal time. It got to where I started dreading those mornings because the deadlines were so pressing and the thought of writing a complete, fully-edited article in the space of the few hours right before it needed to go out felt overwhelming.

Actual vs. Self Imposed Deadlines

When you feel overwhelmed, you don’t do your best work. When you do things at the last minute, you don’t do your best work. Let me make a distinction here: working under a self-imposed time constraint is different from working under the actual deadline. Self-imposed time constraints allow your mind to work free from the pressure of missing an actual delivery deadline to your client or audience, while still challenging you to work efficiently within a predetermined time frame.

Words From the Past

So we looked at my schedule and decided that for my Monday newsletter I would do my writing, editing and scheduling on Friday. In fact, you are reading words that I wrote and edited on the Friday before the day (Monday) I actually sent this out. These words are from the past… I guess they are always words from the past, but the past that these words are from is more distant that it normally is.

Added Value

The practice of writing a few days in advance of actually publishing not only takes the pressure off and helps me to approach my work with greater focus and clarity, it also gives my ideas a little more room to breathe and evolve. It’s nice to know, in the back of my mind, that if I think of something over the weekend I want to add to this article, or if I realized that I needed to further clarify something before it goes out, I now have the freedom to. Instead of thinking of something later and saying, “Man, I wish I would have thought of that before I sent this out,” now I get to actually add those thoughts if I wish to do so.

Use the Self Imposed Deadline as a Tool

This doesn’t work without giving yourself a deadline. The same way children need boundaries and structure to grow and develop, your mind needs constraints and structure in order to thrive. Self-imposed deadlines are a great way to keep yourself from spending needless hours on something that you could actually do in less time. I find that when I have more time than I need to accomplish something I will somehow fill that time. Instead, find out exactly how much time you need to finish it to your quality standards, and let that be your deadline. Because it’s not the ACTUAL last minute, you free yourself from the pressure of not delivering on time to your client or audience. However, it is important to maintain this deadline. Don’t break promises you’ve made to yourself. If you find yourself not meeting the deadline consistently, step back and re-evaluate how much time you really require to finish the task.

The Live Example

I’m literally trying this out for the first time today (Friday) and I have to say, WOW, it really seems to be working. I feel like my thoughts are flowing more freely and with greater clarity. Who knows… I might be “getting back into the groove.” If you feel like you are in a rut and you can’t seem to break out of it, try shaking things up with your schedule. Shift some things around and take some of the pressure off and maybe you will find your way back into the groove.

I have some other thoughts on how to get back into the groove when you’re in a rut, but I feel like I could write a whole other article or two about it, so I’m going to save those thoughts for a future article.

Thanks for reading! If you have experiences with being in a “rut” or maybe some practical things you did to get back into the groove, please reply and share them with me. I’d love to hear from you!