The other day I took a little break from work to check on the Twitter. Cordelia Calls It Quits linked to an interesting-sounding post from Zen Habits, so I clicked the link.
The post was indeed interesting. It suggested doing something only once and doing it immediately when it first grabs your attention. This resonated with me like you wouldn’t believe. I definitely have issues with this. I’ll open an email and not feel like dealing with it right then, so I’ll just close it and move on. But eventually I have to deal with it and I have to read it again to do so. Waste of time.
Or the time I did hours of internet research on places to go in Belgium in my initial excitement of deciding to go there for our 10th anniversary. I told myself I was just brainstorming. I didn’t bookmark stuff or make any real notes. Then a week before our departure, I had to scramble to do all that research again. So dumb.
About halfway through reading the Zen Habits post, I started feeling guilty about checking Twitter when I should be working. Without irony, I made a mental note to finish reading that post later…you know, the post about dealing with things only once.
It would be funny if it weren’t so pitiful.
How about you? Do you put things off that you could do right then or do you take care of them right away as they come up? How do you balance your own to do list with the things other people bring to you throughout the day?
I like that post! When you start thinking about it, it’s kind of amazing how one small change in your way of thinking/acting could cascade into so many other areas of your life. If only the office was conducive to that kind of MO… 😛
At work, there are people who want me to drop what I’m doing to do their stuff right away! That I could do without. But I definitely think there’s something to this advice overall.
I’ve heard this advice before, but I just can’t make myself do it consistently. I feel like if I followed this exactly, chores and mundane tasks would entirely take over my life and I would never get a chance to just relax. I do prioritize carefully at work though – if I dealt with everything the instant it came across my desk, none of the very important but not urgent stuff would get done.
I hear you, it’s my main concern with this advice. But I do think there’s a piece of it that would help me…I do have a tendency to do a task part way and then put it aside. Then I sort of end up doing the task 1.5-2 times. That aspect of the post resonated with me.
I’m unemployed right now so the only person giving me to-do lists is me and yes, I do ignore myself.
Generally my action/completion rate is about 75% but decreases exponentially depending on how unpleasant the task is.
I love that you ignore yourself. I’m impressed with your completion rate too. I need to get my ass in gear.