Strike While the Iron is Hot

(and if you can’t, do this to regain your momentum)

Follow up with Wayne. This was the reminder that popped up on my calendar today. Wayne is a potential podcast guest with whom I have to reach out to again. But I’m not looking forward to it. I had been excited to have him on my show as a guest only a month earlier, but now I’m not looking forward to following up. Why was that?

The iron had cooled.

There is merit in moving forward with an idea or action when you are excited about it. I’ve been eager to have potential podcast guests on my show only to be asked to check back later when the guest is not as busy. So I put a reminder on my calendar for a month later (or whenever I’ve been instructed to).

Time passes. I go about my life and then suddenly my email pops up a reminder to follow up. The extreme excitement I’d experience at one point is gone. My enthusiasm gets lost in the things that have consumed my time, energy, and thoughts in the interim. Although I’d been motivated in the beginning, my enthusiasm dies. And I don’t look forward to having to conduct my research again on the subject to remind myself why I was so excited in the first place.

It takes effort to spark my memory and get back to that place where I was initially. My eagerness usually always comes back, but the effort required to get it back isn’t something I enjoy. Doing double work is not fun. It feels like effort laced with negative emotions, which is something I don’t believe is necessary. As a result, I can find myself procrastinating.

This feeling of resistance when I have to start up from zero has been present in other areas in my life too. This was the case when I was a project manager. When project meetings were less frequent–monthly, every other week, or sometimes even weekly–it was more challenging to keep the thread of what needed to be done going. Preparing for those meetings felt hard because I’d have to remember what happened in the last meeting which had occurred several days or weeks earlier. There was also lower engagement from project team members when we met up again. They, too, had lost the train of our work together. It was difficult to keep the momentum going when we met so infrequently.

I noticed that when a project team met more often, like when we were preparing to launch the project, and we would meet two or more times per week that that was when the project took on a consistent, productive rhythm and when we truly came together as a team.

But it was not always possible to meet frequently. So I found a way to make it easier for my team and me to have a more consistent flow and to start from a position that was not as cold and would be productive more quickly. I began taking very detailed notes on what happened at the last meeting, including what actions were to be taken in between that meeting and the following one and where we would pick up in the subsequent session.

Then a few days before the next meeting, I would refer to the action items and follow up with those responsible for completing them so they would be prepared by the next meeting. I would review the notes and next steps to prime myself for the meeting and reacquaint myself with where we were and what had transpired in between that would influence the conversation. Doing this made it easier to get back into the swing of things with less angst and without having to retrace my steps painfully.

The feeling of dread I had today when my reminder to follow up with Wayne appeared is how I used to feel in the early days of my project management career. And it reminded me of how effective note-taking to keep the thread fresh in between meetings had been.

Since it is not always possible to strike while the iron is hot, I plan to institute this process of keeping more detailed notes about potential guests and clients who aren’t ready to move forward just yet and what the next steps will be for our follow up conversations. Additionally, I’ll place these notes into the follow-up reminder I put on my calendar so I’ll be able to find them easily.

By doing this, I hope to eliminate that dread I feel when it’s time to reengage with a potential client or podcast guest. Recalling key points and what needs to happen next will be at my fingertips and the follow-up will flow more effortlessly.

Do you experience resistance or procrastination when it is time to follow up with people? If so, then consider creating notes that capture your excitement and where you need to pick up when it’s time to follow up. This can minimize the effort and double work you have to do to move your project along.