Just Start
A colleague of mine, when trying to get me to write something I was really struggling with, said very simply, "Just start." We were on the telephone and I was doodling as we spoke. I wrote down those words and when we hung up, I pinned it to my bulletin board. Today is going to be one of those days where I look at that piece of paper a lot.
My job is pretty pain-free. I'm heading in to a busy time of the year (autumn is killer in the publishing industry), but even that is a lot more manageable now that I've been doing this job for five years. But today is going to be One of Those Days. And at 5:46am I already have my To Do list written on both sides of a Walgreens refrigerator notepad. And it's filled with things that a) I don't want to do b) I've been avoiding and c) other people have avoided and they're now in my lap (that's a big part of my job, it seems.)
It's filled with things that have been bothering me all weekend. Things that I fell asleep thinking about. They were bothering me so much that I actually sat down yesterday and updated my database and responded to some emails, just to make today a little less painful.
So today, instead of crawling back into bed, working on time-waster projects, surfing the Internet for breaking news about Floyd Landis or great new recipes, I will Just Start. I will dig through boxes until I find Maralee's address, I will call her, and I will get her package in today's mail. I will call Lisa with my regrets. I will call the presenters for the last conference session I'm responsible for building. I will get presenter agreements in the mail. I will respond to Kathy's email, even though the answer I have isn't the one she wants to hear. I will mark all of these pesky projects off my To Do list today, and by noon if possible.
There, I said it for all the world to see. No procrastination today. Just start.
My job is pretty pain-free. I'm heading in to a busy time of the year (autumn is killer in the publishing industry), but even that is a lot more manageable now that I've been doing this job for five years. But today is going to be One of Those Days. And at 5:46am I already have my To Do list written on both sides of a Walgreens refrigerator notepad. And it's filled with things that a) I don't want to do b) I've been avoiding and c) other people have avoided and they're now in my lap (that's a big part of my job, it seems.)
It's filled with things that have been bothering me all weekend. Things that I fell asleep thinking about. They were bothering me so much that I actually sat down yesterday and updated my database and responded to some emails, just to make today a little less painful.
So today, instead of crawling back into bed, working on time-waster projects, surfing the Internet for breaking news about Floyd Landis or great new recipes, I will Just Start. I will dig through boxes until I find Maralee's address, I will call her, and I will get her package in today's mail. I will call Lisa with my regrets. I will call the presenters for the last conference session I'm responsible for building. I will get presenter agreements in the mail. I will respond to Kathy's email, even though the answer I have isn't the one she wants to hear. I will mark all of these pesky projects off my To Do list today, and by noon if possible.
There, I said it for all the world to see. No procrastination today. Just start.
Labels: Work
posted by Kay at
4:48 AM
2 Comments:
I'm going to do that too. Later.
Can you scan a picture of your note and post it here, so some of us can print off a pretty little picture that's not written in our own handwriting (it's too easy to ignore when it's yourself dictating orders to yourself) and stick it to our own refrigerators? Or walls behind our computer desk? I'm going to need one of those very soon.
Thank you. :-)
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