Hey all,
I was just going through the video about being specific and keeping the promises to yourself and others. It is something that I find quite difficult, so I just wanted to say that I accept the challenge. I will come back in 7 days and let you know how it went.
Also, I am curious how others experience this challenge. Is it easy or hard? Are there any promises you couldn’t keep after all and why?
Hi Wendy!
I totally understand how you feel. I also thought it was a pretty difficult challenge at first. In my case, what I did was to consider this not as an exercise to increase productivity, but as a way to learn how to evaluate when I was able to commit to things, and actually making the commitment. For instance, it might happen that a colleague would come to me and ask me when a specific task of the project would be ready. Usually I would answer something like “as soon as possible”. However, during the 7 days of promises week, I took the challenge to really estimate a specific date by which I thought I could deliver, and telling them.
The idea, I think, is not to set yourself for very short deadlines or impossible promises, but to be as honest as possible with yourself. In my case, I sometimes over-estimated the difficulty of some tasks I had committed to, and finished them very early. And a few time, it was a bit more stressing to respect the deadlines I had set. But in the end you still manage to do it, I think you can trust yourself.
So my advice would be to trust yourself. 
You will find that you are actually good at estimating what you can commit to, and what maybe needs more work / thought before making the commitment. 
Congratulations on taking the challenge, you already made the biggest step in this exercise! I wish you a great and successful week, and I look forward to hearing your feedback! 
So happy to see you guys taking the challenge, great work! You both have an excellent self-awareness which is often half the battle.
I look forward to hear how your 7 days goes Wendy!
So my 7 days are over and I can look back on a very successful week. Although I haven’t worked on my project I did manage to get my work space cleaned up and take care of a bunch of personal stuff.
What I found was by having realistic expectations of myself I removed a blockage that often keeps me from getting into the flow and being productive. Also, committing to one task at a time helped me a lot, especially when they took a lot more time to finish than I thought the would.
I do still have to watch my energy though, because on day 8 I wasn’t able to go to my evening activity because of sheer exhaustion. So that shows how important it is to plan (totally) free days for myself.
Great stuff Wendy, thanks for circling back and letting us know how it went. And yes, be sure to plan downtime!
Well done Wendy for beating the challenge! It is great to see that you managed to determine which commitment were realistic, and be productive! I agree for the need for totally free days, it is necessary to maintain your energy over the long run (like Rick says, it’s a marathon, not a sprint).
Wendy,
Congrats of pulling off the 7 day promises! You’ve done better then I have when I tried to take it I ended up have to fly to a few states to help out for work. Also sound like you earned some RR.