procrastination

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Do Something You Have Been Meaning To Do

Sometimes you just can’t get yourself to do something you want to do.

Do something you have been meaning to do

… You can call it procrastination or lack of motivation, and maybe it is a bit of both. I like to call it “ready to move on”. 

Often something new has grabbed my attention or interest and, as much as I want to do that first thing, I also want to get on to the next thing.

Back in the spring I shot some video with my drone and GoPro camera of me biking at our cottage. It was early spring so the leaves on the trees weren’t fully developed and last year’s leaves were still covering much of the trailers. 

After getting all the shots I wanted, I was looking forward to putting the video together. It was going to require a fair bit of editing but I was good at that. In my editing programs, I selected the clips I wanted and started to cut them down and put them in order. 

I still needed to add music and make sure the colouring was similar between the cameras’ footage. But while I was still working on all that, I shot more video and got kind of excited about putting those shots together. 

I wanted to finish my first video but I was now drawn to the next project.  

It’s like the kids who are in the cottage next to us. They have every toy you can imagine … and most of them are displayed all over their lawn. 

Some of those toys just sit there and don’t move for days or weeks, not because the kids don’t like them any more. They just have so many toys that some get neglected. 

Those kids are excited about their newest toy or another toy that has caught their attention. The toys on the lawn just have to take a number and wait before they will get used again.

Well, that was the same with my video. It’s now the middle of the summer and I still haven’t finished it. … So yesterday I forced myself back to editing. 

I started when it was light out and when I looked up I was in darkness except for the glow of light coming off my computer monitor. I had gotten right back into this video that I wanted to make like it was the only thing I wanted to do. 

After getting back at it, I wasn’t ready to move on; I was ready to complete the project. 

I wish I could say I did complete the video, but I’m not quite satisfied with the music. I’m going to have to take another crack at it before I’m ready to move on. It’s close though, so maybe I can start my new project tomorrow.

That reminds me, I need to get out and shoot more video which may delay my next video edits. 

At least I’ll be ready.

Here’s the thing: There’s no end to things that can stand in the way of us doing what we want to do, like getting to know God more or exploring who He is. We might have a desire to discover more about God, but there are always other things we want to do and so we may never get to it. You just have to be intentional about discovering God. Once you start, you will find you get right into it. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is something you need to force yourself back into? Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Secret To Getting Past Procrastination

I’ve discovered an easy way to tackle projects. I wish I knew this secret a long time ago; it would have helped me to get moving on school assignments and generally anything I wanted or needed to do.

overcoming-procrastination

This year, in early spring, I decided there were a few things I wanted to do around our cottage over the summer months. There were five projects in all.

Five projects seemed like a lot when we got up on vacation and I hesitated getting started on any of them. But finally I decided to start with the one project I wanted to do most.

Deciding which project to start on seemed to be the key to get me going from doing nothing to doing something. … And that’s the kickstart you need to get a project completed.

When you are facing something big, like five projects, it can seem like there’s too much to do, or you don’t know where to start. You can talk yourself right out of doing them.

It doesn’t have to be many projects either. It could be one large project or just a complicated one. When you think of all that it takes to get from start to finish, it can be overwhelming.

… And that thinking or feeling can stop you in your tracks from making progress.

The secret is to not think of the whole, but to think of only the first thing. Another way to look at it is to ask, “What’s the one thing I need to do first?”

That one thing can be as simple as deciding which of the five projects you want to complete the most. For me, that one thing was not that hard and it didn’t even take much time.

It only took me about ten minutes to decide which project I wanted to do first. Then what followed was just as important: I decided what I needed to do next.

That seems to be the key to keep yourself from stepping back and looking at the whole project start to finish, and in the process getting overwhelmed again. You just decide what the next thing you have to do is.

What I’ve found is that there are usually several small, easy steps I can do at the beginning, before I need to spend a lot of time on the project.

And those beginning easy steps serve to get me going. By the time I’ve completed them, I want to keep going and I’m mentally ready to invest more time and energy on the project.

In other words, I’ve slowly got myself to fully commit to and embrace the project to completion.

I completed the first project, moved on to the second and, in the process of completing that, realized I didn’t need to do two of the projects. … That leaves me with one left.

And today I will do something very small to kick-start the work on that. All it entails is to take off some duct tape, open an access door and survey my hot water tank. That shouldn’t take more than five minutes.

Here’s the thing: When you feel you need to discover more about Christ, draw closer to Him, or sense your relationship with God needs to move to the next level, just decide on one thing you need to do to kick-start that process. Maybe that one thing is deciding on a time, a book, a method. Start there and don’t forget to determine what the next step will be as well.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What project have you been procrastinating with that needs a kick-start? Leave your comment below.