Procrastination–is it worth the mental torture?

For years, I have encouraged my clients to use a timer to help manage their time. It can also help reduce procrastination. Think about what you have been putting off. How much torture have you been putting yourself through just THINKING about it?

Here’s a great example of how I was procrastinating something that took me FOUR minutes to complete.

My daughter and I went apple picking a week ago. We ended up with two reusuable grocery bags half full of apples. When we got home, the bags were put on the side counter until I decided what to do with them (besides the caramel apples and apple crisp that we made that day). For the most part, our kitchen counters don’t have much stuff on them. I like to find a place for things. I just couldn’t decide what to do with the apples so they sat there. Yelling at me.

My dilemma was that I wanted the apples to last awhile. This meant they needed to be in a cool location. The garage would not be good because the weather fluctuates so much and there is the potential of them freezing (or little creatures finding them). The basement fridge is too far away and we may not eat them fast enough (because they would be forgotten!) which would be a waste of money. I decided I wanted them in the upstairs fridge but that’s a whole shelf devoted just to apples.

Well…duh, it finally dawned on me to use a container so I could stack the apples up in the fridge and not take up so much space.

I happen to be fixing a cup of tea when figuring this out and I played beat the timer for how long my tea needed to steep–4 to 6 mins. I set the timer for four minutes and rushed to the basement to find a container. I found a plastic container that is vented–like a veggie bin. All the apples fit and into the fridge the container went before the timer went off!! What an adrenal rush and no longer were those bags vexing me.

What is vexing you that you have been meaning to get at and don’t think you have the time? Break the task down into 20 minutes. Can you devote 20 minutes? Set a timer and go to it. You would be surprised at what you can get done in that amount of time.

When you try the timer technique, please let us know the outcome. If you have questions about what is a good timer to use, ask.

Ready, set, (press the timer button) GO

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *