It’s easy in football for your head to drop when you fall a goal behind. Then you might concede another and feel like it’s becoming pointless to give it your full effort and attention any more because the game is getting beyond you.
“Still nil-nil” comes the cry from the coach.
It’s a well known psychological hack, to reset your mind and attempt to remove the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness you can feel when you fall behind in a game.
Obviously at nil-nil it’s all to play for. You’ll give it your all and focus on one thing – scoring the next goal, because you’re still in the game.
I’ve seen it used mainly in junior football and it really works because the kids are coached to know what it means. Clearly they’re not stupid enough to think it’s actually nil-nil but they know what it means metaphorically.
It means ignore the scoreline and focus on playing to score the next goal.
I have a load of weddings to edit, and a load of albums to build, and an inbox that needs attention, and accounts that need bringing up to date, and… and… and…
It’s September. I know we all do.
It’s very easy to look at the queue of work in front of you and just feel it’s insurmountable. Impossible. So you hide under the duvet, post your edit queue on a nice looking Instagram story, and then what?
The trouble with being hyper-aware of the holistic task ahead of you is that can be daunting. Beyond daunting sometimes.
It was nil-nil for me until the end of July. Now I’m ten-nil down and I have sore feet and body aches.
The difference is we can’t wait for the final whistle and play again next week.
So focusing on the score, or the queue, unless you have a very uniquely self-competitive mindset, won’t help you get the work done. Psychologically it could have the opposite effect.
So what can we do?
All you can do is the next task. Your task isn’t ‘edit all your weddings, keep on top of your inbox, design all your albums, blog everything, post on instagram…’ – that’s an impossibility, psychologically speaking. That’s a task worth hiding from.
What you can do is focus on the next thing you need to do and get that done.
Some people work well with really small bitesize tasks like ‘edit 50 photos’, others like me work better with focusing wedding by wedding. You’ll know what works best for you.
Can you edit 10 weddings, build 10 albums, blog 10 weddings and clear your emails in the next 2 hours? No.
So start by breaking everything down into doable, manageable, tasks that you can cope with.
I’m able to sit and focus for hours at a time so my tasks reflect that. If you’re someone who knows you need a break every half hour, create tasks that work in your favour.
Then do the first task on the list. Take a break if you need one. Then do the next task. Then the next. And just keep it going.
Gain fulfilment by ticking off each of your new achievable tasks instead of beating yourself up about how much you need to do.
The only way to get the work done is to do the work. And the best way to do the work is make it achievable for you through much smaller tasks.
The nil-nil analogy works both ways though, so be careful.
The coach will shout ‘it’s still nil-nil’ when the team goes behind, but they’ll also often shout it when the team goes ahead.
Why? Because playing like you’ve won can be as problematic as playing like you’ve lost.
This means, for us, applying ourselves consistently from task to task. So don’t complete a bitesize task and reward yourself with too much time between tasks. Take a break then get back on it.
So what’s next for you? I’m going to design an album now, the next one on the list. In my head that’s all I need to do right now because it’s all I can do – I’m a monotasking advocate as you know. One thing at a time.
So it’s still nil-nil, all to play for. Enjoy the game.
Thanks for reading.
Adam
