Procrastination: Don’t Do It.

Why is it, at one o’clock in the morning I get super motivated and start to make a list of all the things I want to get done tomorrow? Then tomorrow rolls around and I’m lucky if I cross one thing off the list. Yet, I still go to bed that night with optimism in my heart because tomorrow I will be productive. 

I put all these tasks on my future self as if I’m going to miraculously wake up a woman who has her life together. I say things like, “I’ll do it tomorrow” or “I don’t feel like it right now.” As if the me tomorrow is going to suddenly become an extrovert with extra energy. 

I treat my ‘To Do List’ like there is a second shift about to come in and take care of everything I didn’t finish. I act like the next shift will do all the tasks with a smile because, they have plenty of time and a better attitude. Anyone who has ever worked shift-work at all knows this is not the case. The next shift complains just as much as the others. (And whichever one you are working on is always right.)

I need to get it through my thick skull that the person who is going to take on all this responsibility tomorrow is me. The me right now. The me that wants to put it off because she hates phone calls and emailing the boss. That’s the person who is going to get stuck with it tomorrow and she doesn’t like those things either.

If I go to bed saying, “tomorrow I’ll start eating healthy,” chances are tomorrow I’ll go to bed saying the same thing. 

It is still me! Whatever mood I’m in or aversion I have to any task is still going to be there tomorrow. Then the cycle repeats itself until, one day, you’ll turn into a person no one can rely on… not even yourself. 

Now, is the time to act. It’s time to remind myself “Tomorrow Me” doesn’t exist. I’m the one that needs to get it done today because nobody else is going to do it for me.