20220604 : procrastination... follow up.

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I got a bunch of responses via messages and online - so I couldn't help myself from preaching - although I have not been very successful in practicing. I am trying, very hard, but not there yet.

This has been said several times in online gyan, in frameworks, models, case studies, books, etc.

So it is several+1.

I have realised, procrastination till the time comes - "deadline dependency", is a dependable motivation for most things.

However I have also realised that only "urgent" things get done. "Important" things keep getting put on the back burner. At some stage they become urgent too and will get done. However, I am unable to think it through sufficiently/ plan for things in detail enough/ etc.

Things will get done for the sake of getting done basically.

The "urgent" and "important" model for "things to do" is nothing new. How we define timeframes (urgency) or impacts (importance) is up to us and will be different for everyone. However, everyone will have this definition in their minds.

Over the years, I have tried doing this in notebooks, excel sheets (very elegant looking ones!), various tools and apps, etc.

None of them have worked for me.

What I am trying to do, is have a simple "to do" list.

When something gets on that list, I spend some time thinking about the task to understand the timeframes and impacts fully (as much as I can).

It will sort out the task automatically in my mind in its quadrant . When I look at it again, the label will automatically come to mind.

I am not trying to prescribe anything, because I don't want to preach and also because I have not been successful in doing it myself. As I said earlier - I am trying and hoping to get as close to it as I can.

However, (and this is an approximate number in my mind - can be anything else for others). I am trying to spend my time as below:


70% just doing "urgent" but not necessarily "important" stuff.
30% thinking and planning for stuff that are "important" but not yet "urgent".

The aim is to not even put stuff that are "not urgent" and "not important"on the list. Don't want to clutter time in my mind for that.

That's 100% of my time.

What happened to the "urgent" and "important" things you ask?

Well, they don't need sorting. That's the other 100%. Things on top of my list and just have to get done anyway. The "house is on fire" category.

The aim is to continue to reduce items in this category and move things to its place in the sorting of the first 100%...

Basically trying to reduce the 2x2 matrix to a 1x2 problem....

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