Friday, February 12, 2010

Don't Pocrastinate

My new motto I am seriously trying to get into is, "Just do it now." Lately I have been in a really bad habit of putting things off. Little things, nothing important (usually). Like making a phone call or filing a stack of paid bills or writing down the bag-making-instructions I told Jessica I'd have for her directly after helping her make a bag...about three months ago. I keep a running to-do list in a small notebook and I am constantly rewriting these types of things on new pages as I go along so as not to forget them five pages back. I don't put these things off because they're unpleasant of difficult, I think it's just because my present self highly overestimates my future self.
Example:
Present Lori: "Hmm, this email requires a reply/something to be written on the calendar/serious thought. I'll just not delete it and later on when I have a little more time to concentrate on the task I'll very effectively and efficiently take care of it. Good old Future Lori, always comes through."
Future Lori: [has either forgotten about the task or says,] "Hmm, I'll make sure this email stays right here where Even Further in the Future Lori will remember and have the desire to reply to it/write on calendar its information/think about it."
Even Further in the Future Lori: "Oh dang, now it's too late anyway...how embarrassing. Why didn't I just sacrifice the twelve seconds to take care of this email the first time I read it?"
And thus it goes. Bad Present Lori, bad! I have to go now, I just remembered something I need to just do. Now. Not later.

6 comments:

Sharlene, Mom, Grammy said...

I was going to make a comment, but just remembered something that I need to "Just do it now." :)

cally said...

I am so there.

Laura said...

ha. That is so me! I don't know why but it always seems like this huge ordeal to do something as simple as putting copies of bills away in the folders they go in. So instead I just stack them up and up and up thinking I will really feel like doing it later. But then it just becomes this really big stack that really isn't fun to put away. If I had just put them away in the first place it would be over and done. It makes no sense! Hey maybe Future Lori and Future Laura are hanging out together and doing fun stuff!

joelb said...

the wife and i have a running "friendly disagreement" about whether it makes sense to have a "to file" file.

personal efficiency is hard.

Troy said...

Lori: We could be related or something. I do the exact same thing. And my inbox in now 200 messages full. Mostly with emails with pix attached that i want to 'organize' sometime somewhere else in the computer.

nbarnes2 said...

so yesterday i read this and about an hour later when i put the dead tulips on the back porch so that later i can dig up the bulbs and replant them i heard you yelling at me to just do it now. honestly, you can be quite shrill in my head. unfortunately though, i have built up defenses and could ignore you. they're still outside.