Making a promise helps you get the task done
Datum: 2025-12-17 09:03
Have you too experienced choosing a task from your to-do list because it involves delivering something to someone instead of other tasks that need to be done? I have. I don’t want to be empty-handed when I meet the other and say I haven’t “had the time”. So, my promise to deliver made it easier for me to get the task done.
För dig som lyssnar hellre än läser, finns det här blogginlägget också som ett avsnitt av strukturpodden Klart!:
Get-started tips
You may think it is strange that it took a promise to deliver for me to get going, but so be it. Making a promise can apparently be a trick to get those tasks done that are difficult to get started with.
Do you recognize this phenomenon? Use it to your advantage.
Do this
Next time you have a task that you really need to get done but keep putting off, promise someone something. You can, for example, do one of these two things:
- Either, find a part of the task that can be useful for someone else and promise to send a result of the work you put into it. Perhaps you have an idea to create something new for yourself and maybe a colleague could benefit from it too. Tell your colleague you will send over what you have done as soon as it’s ready. Commit to a particular time or date, if you want to increase the effort. You can say, ”You’ll have something in your email next Thursday!”.
- Or, book a check-in meeting with a colleague — your boss, even — where you promise to show how far you have come with this slow-starting task. Because, you surely want something to show, right?
Weakness turned into strength
If you promise others to deliver something, you will more easily get started with slow-starting tasks if you are one of us who tends to prioritize what you need to do for others.
You thereby voluntarily put pressure on yourself. If the pressure becomes too high and the trick doesn’t serve you well, you simply stop making such promises. After all, you came up with it, so it shouldn’t be an issue for the others. But, if you are comfortable with it, you have turned something you could consider a weakness into a beneficial strength.
How do you do it?
Do you have a completely different way of getting slow tasks done? Please share and let me know!
(Have you tried to kick-start your day with a few quick tasks?)
You can get more!
If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.
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