The Done List

I have struggled with procrastination for most of my life. I am still struggling now, as it so happens. I was outside taking a smoke break, after narrowly avoiding starting another game of Starcraft, when I started thinking about strategies for dealing with my procrastination.

Life and Logistics
The Oxford Dictionary defines logistics as: the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. I can assure you, Life is a complex operation. The more we desire (desire to do, desire to be) the more complex it gets. It seems that resource management skills are vital to our success in this complex operation, and that makes life a logistics problem.

Thinking on how to tackle my procrastination from a logistics viewpoint made think of doing some research into time management techniques. As I did not feel the urge to start doing so right away (procrastination vs. hey, I am in the planning stages), I thought about adding time management research to my to do list.

From To Do to Done

This got me thinking about to do lists, and how often in the past I have tried to use them for the same purpose with poor results. The thought of adding time management research to my to do list seemed like work. The time management research seemed like work. I never really look forward to doing work. That might be why to do  lists have never really done anything for me.

So, I asked myself "what would I look forward to?"

Being Done.

The supposed magic that makes a to do list works is the warm and tingly sense of accomplishment you get when you cross something off the list. That's what I was after. I am not looking forward to a long to do list. What excites me is the prospect of having a nice long list of things I have done. 

I have decided to make a Done list rather than a to do list.  See, a to do list is meant to be full of things that are not yet done. That is its natural state of being. If you have a to do list with everything crossed off, there is something wrong with it. It is a needful thing, that needs you to add things to do in order to function. A Done list on the other hand, is designed to be completed. If there are uncompleted tasks on it, there is something wrong with universe. 

Adding a task to a Done list throws the universe out of balance. Then, I can do something to bring balance to the universe. This will work for me. Look, it already is:

Write Today

Procrastination and Priorities

PROCRASTINATE:  
  1. to defer action; delay.
  2. to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.

I could definitely be considered a serial procrastinator. I know I'm not the only person who struggles with procrastination, because I have clicked on many articles with tips on how to avoid procrastination, and if people are writing about it and people are reading about it, then there must be other people struggling with it. I firmly believe procrastination is fairly common, and it's likely this post would have gotten more readers if I had entitled it: 'Conquer Your Procrastination' or similar.

Procrastination is not without consequence. Things that get put off tend to pile up. The 'list of things you need and want to do' gets longer and longer. When you finally make the time to start addressing the list, deciding which thing on the list to address eats up a large portion of that time since there is so much to choose from. While that sand slides through the hourglass, you not only feel the burden your procrastination has caused, but that while you decide what to do you're making things worse.

My ability to procrastinate used to come with a sense of pride. The homework with the ever-approaching deadline? No match for me. I was fully capable of putting it off and putting it off, only to cram in a burst of effort at the last minute and still get a passing grade. Marvel at my prowess! Inevitably, I reached the point in my life where I realized that getting a passing grade was a lot more difficult in the real world, and my procrastinating habits were making my life harder instead of easier. I also realized that I owed it to myself to do better than 'a passing grade,' and that pride in doing my best on a task tasted far sweeter than pride in my ability to procrastinate and not fail.

Thinking it Through
I was actually in the process of not-procrastinating when this post began to form in my mind. Particularly when what you've been putting off is manual labor: washing dishes, mowing the lawn, taking out the trash - your mind has plenty of time for internal dialogue about abstract concepts. As my hands did their work, my mind examined my procrastination.

Was I intentionally procrastinating? I don't really need to make a budget. I've gotten by, at least, with not having one for many years. I want to be on a budget, I want better control of my finances. Surely with these noble goals I wasn't intentionally avoiding making a budget. Even back in school, I wasn't intentionally avoiding the homework. I wanted to spend time on it. I wanted an awesome finished project. I wanted to knock it out of the park.

If I wanted to spend time on it, why wasn't I?
Because you don't want to spend time on it, you want to have already spent time on it. You want it to be done, to reap the benefits of having done it - but you don't actually want to do the thing itself.
Instant gratification? Of course that's what I wanted. Only in retrospect does my desire for the result outweigh what I wanted to do at the time.

But it happens almost every time. Almost every time I choose what I want to do at the moment of what I want to have done, and almost every time hindsight shows it to have been the wrong choice. Logic suggests remembering this and using it to overcome the appeal of what I want to do at a given moment - yet, logic faces a challenging foe in the form of momentary desires.

Priorities in Order
My rational mind constructs a simple plan to follow. It sorts through all of the retrospective anecdotes and finds the pattern of the data. To reduce the stress of enormous todo lists, follow these simple steps:

It assures me that by doing so my life will become more peaceful and more under control. My stress level will decrease. My contentedness will increase. Just follow these simple steps. Try it for a short time, prove it's effectiveness.


 I see the logic. I see the simple wisdom. Then it occurs to me, This wisdom should be shared. You should turn all of this thought into a blog post. Quick, do it now, before you lose the inspiration.




Clearly it will take great effort to promote this and manage to prevent hypocrisy.

It will. Let's focus on that right after we write the post and hit publish...