I came up with this term when I ran a "webinar" (a.k.a. workshop using a chat function) for home-based working moms just over 20 years ago, back in the days before we called them webinars. LOL The good news is, it is a tool that can work for anyone, not just moms who work from home. You use it to get going on a time-consuming, but very important, project that you haven't started because you have a "process" problem: the process you will use to tackle the project is not obvious. Perhaps there are multiple ways to approach it, and you don't know which one will work best for you. Or, worst-case scenario, you think you have to figure out a process from scratch. In either case, you haven't taken the time to think it through and decide yet. Once you do, getting started on the project itself should be easy.
A prime example that most of us can relate to: a decluttering project, especially if it is all the contents of a dear, recently-departed loved-one's home. I really like Julie Morgenstern's "SPACE" formula http://juliemorgenstern.com/blog/?pID=101, so that's a big head-start, but sometimes I don't have any floor space to sort things into categories, or it's not safe or feasible, or it's too time-consuming to keep walking 20 feet to the appropriate stack, to just place stuff in piles on the floor. So where am I going to put everything? Boxes? Bags? Hanging files?
Using the OSC method, you just need to give yourself 15 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, to start brainstorming what the process will look like. If you don't finish when the time is up, that's okay -- you're One Step Closer! But much of the time, you will have figured out the process and maybe even have time to set it up right then. Once you do, there is nothing standing in your way of starting the job. YAY!
Your homework: think of a project that meets this criteria, set a timer for just 15 minutes, and take just One Step Closer. Then, report out in the comments on how it went.
-Lori.
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