Action setting works
Breaking my goals down into small actions each week has changed my life and moved me from someone who had a lot of great ideas towards someone who takes those ideas and gets them done. As successful as my action setting has been, I have found that, at times, I am more successful and feel more energized completing some actions than I do when I complete other actions. I asked myself two question:
What makes some actions easier to complete than others?
What makes some actions more energizing than others?
Answers I already had
I already realize that completing actions that I enjoy is easier and more energizing. I also know that actions that are working towards my vision are easier and more energizing. But even within these types of actions I was finding some were easier to complete and some provided me with way more energy.
Two answers: Action Paths and Action Themes
While I was reading and responding to this post at “When I Grow Up” I realized that it wasn’t the actual actions that were easier to complete, and it wasn’t the actual actions that were giving me more energy, it was the approach I was taking to complete these actions.
When I work on my actions individually I get them done, feel motivated by completing them, and draw some energy from this motivation. However, there are two approaches to completing my actions that boost the whole process: Action Paths and Action Themes.
Action Paths
An action path is a series of actions that are all related to the same goal, and happen in sequence, each next action being dependent on the one that came before. All of the actions in an action path are moving you in the same direction, towards an overall goal. By completing actions, one after the other in an action path, the motivational energy that you receive from each completed action makes the next action more effortless and more energizing. You build upon the success of completing each action and end up accelerating forward towards completing that particular goal.
Action Path Example
This action path idea worked great for me recently when I was organizing my current life plan into a visual format. My action path was:
Write vision statement into flowchart → Write goals into flowchart → Write coaching practice goals into flowchart
I had planned to break this task up over time, but as I finished step one I was feeling pumped full of energy. Instead of focusing that energy on a completely different action I decided to move onto the next step and quickly completed it. Completing the second step gave me even more energy and finishing the final step was almost effortless, the ideas just flowed.
By focusing on my action path I made a huge move forward and, instead of using energy in the process, I felt more energized with each step.
Action Theme
An action theme uses this same idea of grouping actions together in order to build up motivational energy and move you forward effortlessly. The main difference is that the actions in an action theme do not follow each other in sequence. Instead, all of the actions are similar in some way, and grouped into an overall theme, so that the motivation you receive from finishing them is similar, and can build up to move you forward.
Action Theme Example
Writing my blog posts is an excellent example of an action theme. My old method was to write and edit one blog post a week, and I was finding that, although I felt energized by the end product, the process was taking more energy to complete than I wanted. So, I decided to try something new and I started to cluster my writing tasks together all at once and discovered a huge difference:
Old process: write blog post → edit blog post → schedule blog post → feel energized → move onto something else
New process: write blog post → edit blog post → schedule blog post → feel energized → apply energy to → write blog post → edit blog post → schedule blog post → feel energized → etc.
By clustering the similar actions together in a theme I get to take the energy from completing each separate action and use that energy to start the next, themed action. Each completion adds motivational energy directly to the next action and, as the process continues, each action becomes more effortless.
Effortless actions get done
The less effort needed to start and complete an action, and the more energized you feel during and after finishing an action, means you are going to complete more actions and make bigger moves forward in your life. Next time you are planning your actions and how best to move forward on one of your goals think about creating yourself an action path or grouping together similar actions into a theme.
It absolutely works for me, let me know if it works for you in the comments below.
Check out Three Tips for setting weekly actions and Turning big goals into small actions for more help with your weekly action setting.
[...] I am going to be experimenting with a different approach to my action list. This new list has a strong theme: it is all about my writing tasks that need to get done. I need to get some major movement with my [...]