The No Excuses Project: ‘I’m not in the mood’

I think this is one of the trickier excuses because other common excuses often masquerade as this one.  For example people often say “I’m not in the mood” when they really mean “I’m tired” or “I just don’t want to”.  I’ve certainly used the phrase to express boredom or to cover up not knowing where to start – something that tends to make most people want to do just about anything else.

But when I use the phrase as an excuse it usually means something more akin to “I can’t concentrate” because I’m too busy worrying about something else and that’s taking up too much of my brain capacity.  For the computer geeks the CPU usage is maxed.  We’re human so turning that voice completely off is usually asking too much but reducing it to background noise should be doable.

Getting the worry or distraction out in the open is the first step using whatever techniques work best – lists, five questions, etc. then ask yourself if there is anything you can do to fix things right now (absolutely right this minute, not tomorrow.) If the answer’s yes, then that’s probably a priority.  If the answer is no, then put the worry aside until there is something you can do.

Sometimes even that is asking too much – when my father was in the ICU for ten days telling myself to postpone the worry wasn’t as helpful as it was for being distracted by bills.  But even then, when I stopped beating myself up about how fast I was working and let myself run at about 60% capacity I got things done.  Any movement is refusing to give the excuse any leeway.

I’ve done pretty well reducing my use of this one, doing a greater percentage of things that I really enjoy and are part of my personal goals has helped me be less resistant to the things that don’t come so easily.

Next week:  ‘Nobody will notice if I don’t do it because nobody is paying attention’

Technorati Tags: dealing with distractions, setting priorities, staying focused

The No Excuses Project: Doing this will stop me from starting more important things

This week’s excuse, ‘doing this will stop me from starting more important things, is a common affliction for those of us with many interests and is often met with the reponse ‘better to do nothing at all than to do the wrong thing.’  It’s a hard one to undue because there are always more ideas and projects than their are hours or hands.  It’s the excuse that’s the problem, though.

Have I cured myself in a week? Not hardly, but I believe this one boils down to trust; trusting that things will work out, that neither time nor our lives are linear and that things can branch out to bring us back to the other fork in the road.  We take the path we are meant to take and the path we take is always the right one.  Do I sound convincing yet?

Somehow it’s easier when the passion or conviction is strong – I must go to Europe! and we go. When it comes down to choosing between a continuing education class in belly dancing or kaleidoscope making it’s a slightly tougher call. Maybe we are supposed to stay home and write that novel instead…

I think my only real answer is to  look at the project or question that is calling and ask if it in itself is an excuse, luring me away from dealing with what I know needs my attention. If it isn’t, than it is the right thing to start, or research, or ponder in that moment.  And it’s ok to set it aside later when something else legitamately calls.  Once the excuses are eliminated, it will be completed in due time.

Next week: It’s not my nature

Technorati Tags: excuses, procrastination, setting priorities

Avoidance doesn’t work for long

I started marketing my new bread-baking service this week.  Part of how I came up with the idea was a way to use my bread-baking skills without having to get up at 4:30 am like professional bakers often have to do.  So what did I find myself doing this week? Getting up at 4:30 am so that I could bake and get bread and fliers delivered to two real estate offices before their 9 am weekly meeting.  The irony is not lost on me and I found myself chanting the old Dunkin’ Donuts refrain as I blindly moved around the kitchen – “Time to make the donuts”.  On the bright side it’s only for two days a week and for a couple of weeks that I’ll be doing this that intensively.

I’m getting serious about selling online as well but am finding all the options of shopping carts and privacy issues overwhelming.  So I’m considering starting with Etsy which is an affordable place to start and seems to be growing in reputation. I’m not sure how photography sales do there but jewelry seems to be popular as do crafting graphics (something else to try!) I’m working on paring down what it would be nice to do to what is absolutely essential to start.  That seems to be about 10% of what I start out thinking is a “must”…

On the writing front my self-imposed deadline of June 15 is fast approaching for finishing The Novel (working title.)  Which has only been on my list of things to get done for the last 5 years.  I haven’t made much progress so now I’m wondering if I buckle down over the weekend, can I get 40,000 words written that would be worth it?  Or do I admit defeat and at least move my personal goal post?  I’m leaning towards chaining myself to the computer but I’m not sure what I’ll end up doing – check back next week for the answer;-)

Technorati Tags: crafting a creative life, feeling overwhelmed, Health and Happiness, setting priorities, solopreneur, starting a new business, the way to happiness

Setting priorities

This week I sat down and figured out where I needed to be spending the bulk of my time.  The list is still impractically long, at least to be working on simultaneously. It does show me what I need to stop doing, or relegate to spare time so I’ll be working on that.  Blogging and photography remain high on the list.

I’ve been putting a lot of time in figuring out how to best attract and keep the right audience. One step in that direction was to decide to phase out the Google ads; not that they’re bad but I don’t pick them and I can do better with a little time and attention – the same way I handpicked the items in the Amazon book widget.  I think in the long term it will give me and readers better service, but I admit I’ll be missing checking those analytics!

I’ve also decided to bite the bullet and get e-commerce going on my photography site. It’s something people have asked for but I’ve always been leery of dealing with the ordering and payment aspects; an easy thing to push to another day, but I think that day has finally arrived.  I haven’t modified a pixel yet but my plan is to get that in place within the next 60 days.  Feel free to hold me accountable to that, it might help;-)

Also in top place is my brilliant idea from Wednesday, which I’ll wait to discuss until I have it in place – more because it’s likely to morph a bit than for secrecy.  Lower on the list but not requiring much effort right now is submitting two class proposals for continuing education at the local community college.  I’ve got the form downloaded so all I need to do is fill it in twice and get them submitted before June.  I’ve learned my lesson from the last time I did this, when I spent hours crafting the course materials only to have it cancelled at the last minute for not meeting the minimum number of students.

I’m already feeling guilty for not having the vegetable garden in yet and various other chores have slipped while I worked on this but I think the fog is thinning a bit and I’m looking forward to moving forward.

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, inspiration, setting priorities, time management