Keeping Priorities Straight

Hello friends from Toronto, ON! The Wall Street of the north. I use to live there when I was a kid. Friendly city.

Some people are proactive and don’t need external pressure to be successful. But I’m not one of them. I tend to delay doing important tasks until the last minute, sometimes I don’t even do it out of pure laziness. It’s almost like my brain is programmed to enjoy instant gratification and not hard work. One of my biggest weakness since high school is the internet. Back then it prevented me from doing homework, now it distracts me from my career. I can start watching one Youtube video, followed by another, and then another, and before I know it hours have gone by. I can’t block out the internet altogether because my job requires me to do my research online.

But every problem has a solution. I discovered a brilliant way to become more efficient and accountable for my responsibilities. If I have to do something important, I would tell someone I see regularly (friends, co-workers,etc) that I will complete a certain, tangible task, which could be anything from chores, to paperwork, to finish reading a book. Followed by telling them, “next time we meet, ask me if I did what I promised to do. And if I failed and didn’t complete my work, then I promise to treat you to lunch.”

But lucky for me, to this day, I have never treated anyone to lunch yet. I know how cheap that makes me sound, but that’s irrelephant because I’m just trying to highlight a strategic point here. May not work for everyone, but it should at least provide a bit more incentive to be more productive.

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youngandthrifty
12/12/2011 11:57 pm

Ugh so true! I can be focused and then I can be a huge procrastinator.

During my exam studying period, I gave myself 10 minute intervals every 2 hours I studied to browse the web.

Liquid Independence
12/13/2011 9:08 am

Great idea miss. Wish I had that kind of will power. Sometimes I find it hard to keep focused for even a hour at a time, haha.