Bad habits
Most of my bad habits stem from one large bad habit.
Procrastination.
I often consider how much time I have between the deadline and now, and estimate how much time the task will take. I then subtract the task time from the total time, and then I know I can procrastinate for X amount of minutes before I must start the task.
Heck, I'm doing it right now. This post isn't going to be released for another two days. But, I could be doing things like taking out the trash (should do today), making a backup of my computer files (overdue), or or sorting through the CDs my parents brought down that were mine (no strict deadline, but they're in the way). This task of writing a post is more engaging than doing those other tasks, so I am prioritizing it over the other things. Also, I want to make sure that I continue the habit of writing every day - I just don't want to have it be another flash in the pan idea like my other blogs that fizzle out within two or three months. Heck, I even have two blog ideas I didn't really start - just wrote half the first post, then, well, that was it. I've only done this for two weeks in a row, so it's still new - and easy to forget or give up on.
The trash can wait. It's not overflowing. The computer backup can wait - if I have a catastrophic failure, that's just on me. And no one knows or cares what's in the CD stack. But they are still on my mind while I write this post. I have to solve them eventually. For a while this morning, I was procrastinating on the laundry until I just made myself get up and start it, even though I don't have to get it started until this afternoon.
I would feel better if I take care of those projects sooner rather than later because they would be out of my mind. I've gone all gung ho before and stopped doing all procrastination and just worked, and that lasted a good two days. Then, I'm exhausted. Projects that are 85% completed seem suddenly done enough, and put away without actually finishing them. Then pretty soon they're only 70% done, then 50% done, then just seem like an insurmountable amount of work, and pushed aside for more immediate or more interesting things.
Like this blog post.
Ok, I've gone through the CD stack, and now I am out of room in my CD drawer. This means I need to get rid of some CDs. Of course, before I do that, it means I need to rip those CDs onto my hard drive, which requires me to go find the external CD drive, plug it in, rip the CDs, then toss them out. Actually, I need to be sure all of my CDs in the drawer are also in the computer and the external hard drive. It's getting to be a larger project already. Or I can just put the CDs out of the way, next to the CD drawer for another week.
Laundry is in the dryer and I just took the trash out, so the last thing that I mentioned (because I don't want to list all my projects yet) is the computer back up.
Guess I'll go do that now.
At least my
Procrastination.
I often consider how much time I have between the deadline and now, and estimate how much time the task will take. I then subtract the task time from the total time, and then I know I can procrastinate for X amount of minutes before I must start the task.
Heck, I'm doing it right now. This post isn't going to be released for another two days. But, I could be doing things like taking out the trash (should do today), making a backup of my computer files (overdue), or or sorting through the CDs my parents brought down that were mine (no strict deadline, but they're in the way). This task of writing a post is more engaging than doing those other tasks, so I am prioritizing it over the other things. Also, I want to make sure that I continue the habit of writing every day - I just don't want to have it be another flash in the pan idea like my other blogs that fizzle out within two or three months. Heck, I even have two blog ideas I didn't really start - just wrote half the first post, then, well, that was it. I've only done this for two weeks in a row, so it's still new - and easy to forget or give up on.
The trash can wait. It's not overflowing. The computer backup can wait - if I have a catastrophic failure, that's just on me. And no one knows or cares what's in the CD stack. But they are still on my mind while I write this post. I have to solve them eventually. For a while this morning, I was procrastinating on the laundry until I just made myself get up and start it, even though I don't have to get it started until this afternoon.
I would feel better if I take care of those projects sooner rather than later because they would be out of my mind. I've gone all gung ho before and stopped doing all procrastination and just worked, and that lasted a good two days. Then, I'm exhausted. Projects that are 85% completed seem suddenly done enough, and put away without actually finishing them. Then pretty soon they're only 70% done, then 50% done, then just seem like an insurmountable amount of work, and pushed aside for more immediate or more interesting things.
Like this blog post.
Ok, I've gone through the CD stack, and now I am out of room in my CD drawer. This means I need to get rid of some CDs. Of course, before I do that, it means I need to rip those CDs onto my hard drive, which requires me to go find the external CD drive, plug it in, rip the CDs, then toss them out. Actually, I need to be sure all of my CDs in the drawer are also in the computer and the external hard drive. It's getting to be a larger project already. Or I can just put the CDs out of the way, next to the CD drawer for another week.
Laundry is in the dryer and I just took the trash out, so the last thing that I mentioned (because I don't want to list all my projects yet) is the computer back up.
Guess I'll go do that now.
At least my
Comments
Post a Comment