The knowledge action gap



I am sure we have all been through a phase where you are stuck between knowing what to do and doing it. “Tomorrow is a new day” or “I am going to start tomorrow” or “New day new me” have always been my favorite statements to fire myself up for the next day which in my mind would be the day that I change the course of my life. The sad thing is that day never came because the zeal and energy I had when I made those statements seemed to fizz out as soon as I wake up the next day. This is what most people call procrastination and Mel Robinson calls it the knowledge action gap where you know what it is that you must do but you just can’t get yourself to do it. Personally, I have been going through this and I am still working on ways to become more productive. I have some habits that I have found to be helpful and have really helped me improve productivity and actually get things done.

  • Wake up early
    The start of all my problems usually came when the alarm clock went off and like most of us, I would so often hit the snooze button. I realized that no matter how pumped up I was the previous night, that single action would just kill all the momentum because I would have started the day by procrastinating hence actually being productive throughout the day would take a tremendous amount of effort which I was never willing to put in. So, I have decided to set 3 consecutive alarms which are 5 minutes apart to make sure that if the first one doesn’t get  me, the next 2 definitely will. This puts me in the right frame of mind for the day.
  • Activity/Task Journal
    I picked up this habit from an Instagram post which talked about structuring your day using a task hierarchy. Every morning I write down my primary and secondary tasks of the day and push myself to make sure I tick off at least 80% of all the tasks before the day ends. Its not easy and most days I hardly tick anything off, but I always tell myself at least I managed to do something today and it becomes one step closer to the ultimate goal.
  •  Reward yourself
    Part of the Activity Task Journal entails that after completing a certain task or set of tasks I will reward myself with either my favorite snack or a movie or a few episodes of a series that I will be watching. This at least gives me a short-term goal to work for because most of the times keeping your eye on the final goal can become difficult especially when life gets hectic and a lot of things require your attention. So, work hard and play hard too.     
  •  Remind yourself whyThis is probably one of the most difficult habits I have ever had to adopt. In the long run it becomes exceedingly difficult to keep your eyes on the prize. There are times where I have felt lost and unfocused. This was simply because I let myself reach a point where I wasn’t quite sure of what it is that I wanted and started focusing more on all the detours I was taking. So, I chose to write down 3 goals that I am to achieve in the next 90 days. It is much easier to break down my overall goal into sections which I can pursue within a reasonable time frame. Break down your goal into a different sub goals and group the sub goals into reasonable time frames to ensure that you always remember what it is you are doing and why
I hope that you have a blessed week filled with happiness...remember that you are amazing and you are the best at what you do. Give yourself time to evaluate were you are and where you want to be. Organize your tasks for improved productivity and just kill it this week. Enjoy your week and Thank God its Monday

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