Doing It When You See It Right in Front of You

Doing It When You See It Right in Front of You

Often the Tips and Tools submissions that I do come from sources that have been part of my coaching education or articles that I may read which connect with me. This submission is a little different, because it snuck up on me. By that I mean, I started to notice changes happening in my life that made me realize, “Gee, Tony, you may have to do things a little bit differently than you did in the past.”

Let me explain what I mean. For as long as I can remember, I have been blessed with a great memory. I am still the person many from my generation come to in terms of recalling details of past events or individuals in our respective lives. However, with the aging process, (I am now 66 years young), I began to notice patterns where I would have a series of things on my mind to do, and while maybe addressing some of them, there would be things that I would forget to do. Were the things I was forgetting to do life threatening or of a nature that someone or myself could critically get hurt? No! However, they were of the nature they could become annoying to me.

What are examples of such items? Perhaps I would be staring at the garbage or recycling that had to be taken out and disposed of, and said to myself, “You can take care of that later.” Or I’d be working at my computer and set up an agenda of items to do, and then that while I may have done some of them, I would forget one or two. Worse yet, I would distract myself with either reading an internet article that popped up on the screen, not only reading the article but getting engrossed in the comments to the article. Then later in the day, (often when I was exhausted from my workday), I’d realize I did not get done what I said I would get done. As such I’d still have the item on my TODO list for the next day, and perhaps completing them then would have become more critical.

So, how have I addressed the situation? While still not perfect at it, I simply say to myself, “Can I afford to take the time RIGHT NOW to get this done and behind me?” “How will getting it completed make me feel?” If I do have the time and I address it, I notice an uplift in my mood. Even, if it is for my own personal satisfaction, I’m able to say to myself, well at least that item is done for now, and can move onto other tasks.

Where this also comes in handy is when you have some “wait time” built into your life? What is “wait time?” A good example of this is you and your spouse or partner is going somewhere together. One of you is ready and waiting on the other. You have as is said “some time to kill.” Is there a “short task,” (and the key here is SHORT TASK), that you can get done without much effort, but that it will not be staring back at you when you return from the activity. I had one such example which happen recently where I prepared the Iced Tea drink container that I use for dinner each night. While waiting on my wife, I remembered that I needed to refill the container. It popped into my head while waiting for her. I had a couple of minutes to do so. If I had not done so at that moment, and had forgotten later in the day, most likely I would not have had my favorite drink ready at dinner time. (NOTE: While not a major calamity, it still would have been annoying to me).

The point of all this is the following. Do you find yourself being a procrastinator? Are you finding as you age that you tend to forget short term items, which while not of major importance, annoy you when you find you have not gotten them done? Do you feel that the distractions of the world are impacting your life that you find yourself often upset with the world around you, and not accomplishing what makes you happy? Then look to do an item that is going to give you a sense of accomplishment when it is right in front of you, and you have the time to complete it to your satisfaction, and you’ll likely find yourself living a more stable, balanced and less frustrating life.