How Not to Let Yourself Slide
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When you put something off or skip something entirely, how do you treat yourself? If you let yourself slide, then you’re reinforcing the thought process that made you do it in the first place. There are countless days where I sleep in longer than I want to or do a little bit less work than I was planning to. I hate doing it, but, secretly, I don’t feel that bad about it. What to do?
The first weapon against this type of laziness is effort. If I can muster up a little bit more oomph and just start the chore, that will often get me to finish it. This means carrying all the dishes from the dining room to the sink (those of you with dishwashers, you can thank your lucky stars now). It means lining up all the garbage cans at the door before making the long walk out to the big bin. It means taking the sheets off the bed and untangling them. Once these starter steps have been taken, it’s so much easier to just finish the thing. Your mind realizes it’s been started, and your physical memory will carry you through the rest.
If you realize you’ve really let something go undone too long, you need to do it immediately. If you continue to let yourself slide, the resistance will only get worse, as you start to think “I’ve survived this long without doing it…” and you begin to wonder if the world really would turn forever despite being covered in the dust you were supposed to clean up. You can convince yourself that it will. This is bad.
And don’t take any excuses from yourself. If you “don’t have time” to do your chore now because you “have a date” or “have to cook” or “are too tired,” reschedule. Order out. Have a coffee while you work. But don’t put it off any longer – mundane, powerful excuses like these are the ones that got you here in the first place.
And if you really need it, call a friend. They don’t have to help. You could ask them to talk to you while you work – since unlike the TV they can occasionally remind you to get back to work. They could arrange to come over at a certain time to make sure you’ve finished. And, yes, they could help. But don’t ask friends to help with dishes or making the bed. Ask them to help you move furniture or clean the garage.
Good luck getting things done.
(Image credit: un4gtableann and Quotentials)
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