Procrastination, distractions and Ernesto…
Tuesday, 17th on May 2022
Do you ever feel like procrastination is taking over your life? For me the more stressed I am, the more urgent things I have to do the more I procrastinate. It is one of the most annoying ‘qualities’ of mine. My donkey Ernesto just wants to play or do anything as to not do that one thing that really needs to be done.
After 2 successful interviews in 2 engineering companies I visited over last couple of weeks I have decision to make and I have been avoiding making it for as long as possible.
Yes, I did my pros and cons list, I talked to a few friends about it to hear my thoughts out loud, but as soon as I lay out all the details of both jobs, my friends agree it’s a tricky decision to make and wish me the best 😅 So back to the square one - which one do I choose?
Yesterday I decided to take my attention off making decisions and gave myself a task to do for the day. One important thing to do. As I have been self employed for over a year now, I am required to fill in an online self assessment by the end of this year.
Either of the jobs I pick will not start before 30th of May, therefore having still plenty of time now I thought it would be a good idea to get that self assessment out of the way nice and early. Usually I like to leave things for last minute, because… well… Ernesto says there is no rush! Ernesto always has plenty of time.
So in a spirit of changing bad habits I decided to do it yesterday. I picked up necessary documents and put them on my desk. Most of the job was already done, as I have been keeping all the numbers and receipts and summarising the numbers each month. Easy peasy I thought to myself.
Some people get accountant to do these self assessments and had I been earning buckets of money and wanted to save a lot of tax, I might have been doing this too. I didn’t earn much however and paying accountant to fill in a couple of figures in online for just didn’t make any sense to me. I have done a few of those self assessments in the past and it’s really not that complicated.
Easy peasy, yet so complicated!
First I obviously had to have a coffee before I start! A coffee without a cigarette doesn’t taste the same, so I grab a pack and sat on my front porch sipping my coffee and playing a game on my phone.
Well, let’s check Facebook! Not that I even like facebook, but Ernesto says there is plenty to see there and plenty of time to still complete that one task!
Oh look… my friend is messaging me. Yeah, let’s message her back into a conversation and waste some more time. I mean… I really need to complain how anxious I feel and how I don’t like the idea of getting up early for any of the new jobs I have lined up!
A quick look on my desk… yes the documents are still there. Still not touched. I mean why would I touch them?
‘It makes me feel stressed just thinking about it’ says Ernesto.
‘But it is so easy to do and all is ready’ says another voice in my head.
‘Exactly, it will only take a few minutes , so let’s leave it for later and play another game’ answers Ernesto.
So I pick up my phone and waste another few hours playing game. Then it’s time for another coffee. Also another friend messages me, so I’ll waste some more time complaining.
How long did it go for? All day my friends, all day I have done nothing constructive! I have even tried to start writing an article to quiet my conscience, but I stopped that as well, cause you know… I have self assessment to do!
Finally in early evening I picked up the documents. It was already dark outside when I finished. Of course it wasn’t a 5 minutes job, but it was an easy one nonetheless. I had to summarise the months and a little mistake in one of them made me recalculate the figures about 3 times before it all aligned. Then I had to research a few terms to make sure I tick the right boxes.
All in all it was maybe 2 hours job and it could be done by midday and I would have a whole day to enjoy the feeling of the task completed. Instead I wasted the whole day procrastinating and stressing out about the things that haven’t even happened yet.
I must say it did feel very good to complete the task over half a year before the deadline. So for today I also made a to do list of simple tasks to complete before midday. Have I completed them? What do you think? Nahh… I wrote an article instead! Still, that’s better than playing games with Ernesto 😉
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Until next time 💙
I have been lazy for days before too. And I experienced that procrastination thing.