Change Myself For The Better!

If You Could Change Something About Yourself, What Would It Be?

There are many things that I would change about myself. If I had to choose one thing to change about myself, right now, it would be my habit of procrastination.

I always seem to dread even simple tasks, and I do not know why.

There are just some things that I do not like to do, and I try to avoid them, but eventually, I know that I will have to do them, or chaos reigns.

For example, while studying at the university, I was required to take math, science, and languages. These were not my best subjects – especially math – so I tried to avoid doing the work.

Of course, my grades suffered. So I finally decided to do the subjects I hated most FIRST.

I got it out of the way and could then study the subjects I loved – literature, journalism, history, and geography.

My grades improved in all my subjects because I worked harder at my bad subjects and was relaxed and happy when studying my good subjects.

Procrastination

I still procrastinate over the dumbest things and I then constantly nag myself to do them.

To try to stop this self-defeating behavior, I write master lists of all the things I need to do. I try to do the most onerous tasks first.

Of course, my Master List has grown to an unmanageable size due to my procrastinating.

My Master List includes everything that I need to do – from cleaning and shopping to writing blog posts.

I try to do things I dislike while doing things I enjoy – for example, I will give myself manicures (something I absolutely hate doing, but I can’t afford professional manicures on a weekly basis), I will polish silver, or I will exercise while watching TV shows that I like.

Sometimes I will set aside a whole day for doing things I hate – mostly cleaning.

I especially hate dealing with and organizing paperwork. I just hate it. Paperwork seems to multiply like rabbits.

Much of this paperwork is about negative things and makes me feel like an utter failure, so I don’t want to see it on a daily basis.

I hate filing, so I have taken to organizing much of my paperwork in binders, especially old files that I keep for legal purposes but hate seeing in my filing cabinets. It’s actually much easier for me, and I don’t dread it so much.

Get Back To Writing On A Regular Basis

The strangest thing is that I procrastinate doing the things I love to do!

I am a professional writer, and yet I find myself constantly pushing off my writing projects.

When I finally tackle the project I enjoy it. It’s weird, but I actually LOVE writing, so why do I procrastinate?

Is it because I am so self-critical?

I sabotage myself by thinking that I am not enough of an expert to do certain things when that is just not true.

The writing usually is well done when I am finished, so I do not know why I do this.

I need to set enough time aside to do my writing projects properly.

Conclusions

I have promised myself that I will try to get things done on a timely basis.

I will do the things I dislike FIRST to get them out of the way.

Most importantly, I will NOT sabotage myself.

Hopefully, I will not GET MORE DONE.

Please read If I Had A Book Deal . . .

Written for Mama Kat’s Pretty Much World Famous Writer’s Workshop.