The Shotgun Approach To Dealing With Indecision

Written by Dave Navarro on January 7, 2007

What do you do when you reach one of those places where you’re just not sure what to work on? You know what I mean - a window of time, maybe three to four hours opens up - and though you can work on anything, you’re at a loss for what to work on next?

Help! What Do I Do?
A lot of people react to this situation in a typical way - they just kind of freeze up. Since it’s not obvious what should be worked on, and since there are so many competing priorities … sometimes nothing gets done at all. Maybe it’s because they spend time analyzing “the best” course of action. Maybe it’s because, unable to choose a big priority to focus on, they do something relatively unimportant.

Who knows. But if you’ve been in one of these spots, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Big important things don’t get done because of indecision and self-imposed time pressure. So what’s an achiever to do?

Give Your Schedule Both Barrels
One solution is to use the “shotgun approach.” A shotgun shoots pellets in a spread pattern, covering a much wider range of fire than a simple pistol. Now, I’m not saying if you’re stuck for what to work on load up a real firearm … but what you can do is shotgun your schedule.

Instead of choosing one or two major things to work on, set a wide range of tasks that spread over many different areas of life that will only take 15, 20 or 30 minutes each. Maybe you hammer out a blog entry, file that small stack of paperwork in your briefcase, make 3 phone calls, and whatever other set of small tasks you can think of to hit as many areas of life that you can reasonably cover.

“The Peace Of The Done.”
While this won’t advance you much in any particular direction it will do one thing - it will get you going. It will start greasing the wheels of productivity and leave you with that feeling that you now have less to do than you did before, and that is a good feeling, my friend. The kind of feeling that helps you get more focused on the things you really do need to be working on now, so you can take action with the confidence that comes with clarity.

So, if you reach a point where you’re not sure what “the best” course of action is, shotgun your schedule and just start doing small meaningful tasks as quickly and consecutively as you can. You’ll soon break out of that spot you’re stuck in and put yourself into a better position to move forward in the long term. Give it a shot. You’ll thank yourself for it.

- Dave Navarro