Last week I shared how I significantly scaled down a number of pieces from my closet in an effort to gain more time and freedom. Today I want to share a habit I’m leaving behind and that is excuses. More specifically, procrastination.
I just finished listening to an amazing book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. The timing of this book could not have been more perfect as I was entering into this new year intentionally planning on change. This book forced me to realize some of the bad habits I have and how those habits are obstacles in my productivity.
Procrastination rears its ugly head in a number of ways, but for me the main trigger is perfection. As we all know, perfection is usually just disguised as an excuse. I want something to appear perfect without any mistakes. If I can’t make it perfect, or complete it quickly, I put it off. The problem with that is when I procrastinate on something, I end up rushing, therefore making a mistake. It’s a vicious circle.
If I’m being completely honest, the other reason I procrastinate is laziness. My laziness the night before usually has a future impact on me the next morning. If I don’t do certain tasks in my routine at night, you can almost guarantee I’ll be running late the next day. Tasks in the evening usually include: prepping the coffee pot so it auto brews, filling my water bottle, packing my gym bag, washing/prepping my protein shake bottle, charging my podcast gear, and packing up my laptop and charger into my bag.
Another habit I’m actively working on is clearing all my unread emails from my inbox everyday. Last year, I had this terrible habit of reading an email on my phone, marking it as unread. I wouldn’t end up replying until I was on my computer. My excuse for that was I thought I’d be more productive if I blocked out time during the day to reply to emails on my computer. It sounds ridiculous, but it made sense to me. But in reality, for me, it just prolonged the task, and perpetuated my procrastination. I began to lose information in my inbox because when I marked them as unread, they got lost throughout the day as other emails flooded in.
Practical ways I’ve helped with unread inbox anxiety.
As I continue to create a new habit of replying immediately, the reward is my inbox is being cleared throughout the day instead of getting more cluttered. In return, I feel much less anxious about my to-do list and can focus on other tasks better.
Another really helpful thing you can do is take a few extra minutes and unsubscribe from certain emails rather than just deleting them. Some of the services I’ve unsubscribed to simply because the daily emails were too much. I found myself spending so much time on a weekly basis just deleting emails over and over again.
In fact, as I write this post, I paused and went back to my inbox. By taking 15 minutes or so to unsubscribe from a bunch of stores and services, I probably just eliminated about 10 more emails a week that I no longer will receive. This is in addition to the numerous others I don’t get anymore. Unsubscribing from emails allows me to stop the procrastination on reading my emails because now I’m receiving mail on my terms.
Finally, I’ll leave you with this quote by Ryan Blair that has come back around to the forefront of my mind:
“If it’s important you’ll find a way. If it’s not, you’ll find an excuse.”
Click here to read Part I of Things I Left Behind in 2019.
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