Worst Things First!
- I was thinking about this yesterday. I had a couple of tasks that (a) I was not excited about doing or (b) were downright not pleasant.
I usually do these kinds of tasks first thing in the morning because it gets them off my desk. This week I let myself slip into agonizing about these "worst" tasks; envisioning an outcome, even playing out an entire conversation. One task was simply annoying, not difficult, just annoying, so I put it off another day. Off and on these tasks would rise up in my brain and I'd push them back down.
Finally last evening I finished work and realized I had not done the "worst" things I knew on Monday I needed to do, so I made a list of what I was doing this morning but also thought about how long those things were going to take. How many minutes of my life were they going to take? How was I going to feel if I did not do them and five o'clock rolled around today?
I completed all three tasks today and combined time I'd say was less than 15 minutes! For this 15 minutes I spent two days of feeling agitated. So, for me it was the time that triggered the action. I am going to use this tool in the future. When I have something unpleasant to do, I am going to think about it in terms of how many seconds or minutes that is of my life. I sacrifice fifteen minutes, but go home with a clear head. Priceless!
I'll stick to my "worst things first" motto and I'll also be aware of just how much time an unpleasant task is going to take, especially when it is mere minutes. The feeling of accomplishment is well worth it once it is done.
