The No Excuses Project: ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’
January 27, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
Ouch – I thought about using this excuse when it came to writing this post (I haven’t thought of what I’m going to say – I’ll get up early and do it tomorrow…) So forgive me if this isn’t the greatest prose, but at least I’m getting it done! The refrain of ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ or ‘next week’ or ‘next month’ is probably my excuse of choice. I’ve used it since early childhood as a way to get out of doing the dishes and somehow it never left. I get plenty done and know how to stick to a schedule but I’m also pretty good at convincing myself that I’ll produce a better product if I put it off. Sound at all familiar?
The best (if not perfect) solution I’ve found is to remind myself of what I’ll be putting off tomorrow if I have to make time for what I’m delaying today. So, if I chose not to write this post now then that would mean I would be putting off doing some experimental photography and answering some emails already slated for that spot. It’s important to me to get those done so here I am typing. The other part of breaking the habit is to simply sit down and start – somehow the rest of it takes care of itself and I find the task done before I ever found a place I could stop midway in order to pick it up later. It’s not perfect, I know but it does minimize the excuse.
The flip side that is worth mentioning though is to not regret making a clear choice. Choosing to delay a task in order to spend time with your grandmother (or granddaughter) is not an excuse, it’s a choice and probably a good one. I grew up in a family that delayed all the fun things until every last chore had been dealt with. ‘Never put off tomorrow what you can do today’ being the favorite refrain. Which maybe why I rebelled so early. There’s a happy medium to be found and a big difference between delaying the laundry to help model the solar system and delaying the laundry to sit in front of the TV.
This concludes part one of the project – next week it will be time to start looking at goals and what’s holding them back.
