Don't Put Off Until Tomorrow....

You are sat at work. You are thinking about dinner tonight. You are thinking about your next holiday. You are thinking about the big game on Saturday. You are thinking about anything but what you are supposed to be doing which in most circles is called work. It may be work, it may be making a decision. I get the feeling that humans are amazing procrastinators and dawdlers when we want to be. I wonder if animals are – does the cat give serious thought to whether he is going to climb the curtains today, or does the bird analyse the scene ahead and deliberate which unsuspecting human he is going to swoop over and poop on? I am not so sure.

We either delay the inevitable, or often take the long route rather than just ploughing ahead and just doing something or making a decision. I remember writing about this subject when I first started my blog and it randomly came back into my head recently. Unquestionably, most folks are at work and spending time surfing facebook and spying on what Little Jimmy has been up to today. They actually have 27 emails sat in the inbox waiting to be dealt with, but learning about what Little Jimmy had for dinner seems far more appealing than replying to them. I suspect many folks are reading this rather than doing something they should be doing – you’ve made the right decision – those emails can wait. Promise!

I have gone down the route recently of setting up a company and working independently. The pitfalls of good old procrastination are more evident than ever when you work for yourself. There is nobody keeping track of what I am doing, there is nobody to report to, there is nobody dangling a bonus at the end of the year if I perform well, and there is nobody to sack my butt when they want to. There are positives and negatives. I can sleep in if I want to. If it is cold outside, I don’t have to go outside. If I am sulking one day, I don’t have to talk to anybody. All of which are positives and negatives – if you work in an office, you will think they are massive positives, but I can assure you it is not as glamorous as one may think. The overriding factor is that for all the time I spend on Facebook, wasting time on decisions I have already really made in my head but have not followed through on, I am not earning money. Effectively, if I don’t get busy, I am not going to eat.

Well that sounded dramatic and is obviously not the case, but the reality is that nobody is going to motivate me other than myself and I have to produce. Some folks would struggle with it. It is certainly not easy, I have to admit, but thankfully I am generally quite motivated to do well and succeed so I have never found it a major problem. Of course I have days where I waste too much time and productivity levels are lower than usual, but more often than not, I know I have to produce and I do. I do not have to worry about what anybody else is doing, Little Jimmy is whingeing about Big Bertha, Judy leaves early every day and I am left having to do her work. I do not have to deal with any of that. I just have to produce.

As I have said, there are good elements and not so good elements to it and so much depends on your personality. I think I was back in high school when one teacher threw out a saying which always stuck with me – ‘Don’t put off until tomorrow, what can be done today.’ It is so true and something that I have always found to be worth remembering. Easier said that done I know, but if you are reading this, and you have a few items on your things to do list that you have been putting off, get your teeth into one of them, and ban yourself from facebook until you do. Don’t be so hasty and stop reading my blog, but give it a try!