It’s Procrastination, I Know

So I said I would write a blog post a day for the month of April. And then I didn’t.

Did I overcommit? I don’t know. I have lived with the fear of overcommitting for years, allowing that fear to shut me down in many ways. And now my first reaction to failing once again to keep a promise is to tell myself I overcommitted; I shouldn’t make promises I can’t keep.

Facing up to my own flakiness means taking responsibility for not keeping a promise, even though I know nobody really cares — or even notices. But I didn’t make that promise to anyone else — I made it to myself. I am disappointed in and a little angry with myself, because I frittered away two or three days on other things. You know the routine: e-mail, blogs, phone calls, Twitter, more blogs, and more blogs.

It’s called procrastination.

Why do we procrastinate? In my case, it’s fear. Fear of the discomfort of trying to find words and make sense when nothing is coming. For me, writing is very uncomfortable. And now I feel like a fraud, pretending that I know something about getting things done when I clearly have a real problem with it myself.

But I’m not pretending. I’ve been open about that with you. I’ve made it clear that I am learning as I go along and sharing what I learn. The trouble is, I am frantically surfing the web all day, trying to learn not just how to get organized and get things done, but how to blog about it, how best to share that information with you.

I’m looking at a stack of library books right now, and feeling a little tired at the thought of having to read them all.

There are the old standbys: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Then there’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, and How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself: Time and Space Management That Works With Your Personal Style by Sonny Schlenger and Roberta Roesch. And for learning how to communicate more effectively, there’s Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin, and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. [These are all affiliate links. If you buy one or more of them, I will receive a small commission.]

As interesting as all of these books sound, it looks like a huge homework assignment, and I’ve never been fond of homework. So yes, like any good flake, I got carried away and overdid it. Again. Because that’s what I do.

I may not read all of these books. How To Be Organized In Spite of Yourself, I will definitely read just because of the title, and have already started. The 7 Habits and Getting Things Done books scare me, mainly because they’re so popular with people who strike me as already being pretty organized to start with, people who enjoy the process. That wouldn’t be me, so I don’t know how far I’ll get with those. Mindset, I’ve heard, is really good so I really want to look at that and see how it goes.

I’m not going to do a review of each book, but I will definitely share what stands out for me as useful. And look — I just wrote a blog post!

Onward and upward!

Are there any books that you have found particularly helpful in kick-starting you to get things done? Let us know in the comments below!

Photo credit: ckaroli