Nibbled to death by mice, I am, and willingly, I admit.
I enjoy being distracted by the temptations to do those things that are fun and easy, and avoid doing the things that are not fun, not easy, but more important than learning how hot it is at the center of Rigel, the foot of Orion, the constellation. I just left that Wikipedia page after trying to see the last of the meteor shower from the back steps in the dark, up in that bunch of stars.
I love pulling the thread that draws me deeper and deeper into a topic that may or may not have any relevance to the things I tell myself matter most—matter: to me, to my family and friends, to the future survival of the planet. Those—THOSE—are the things where my digging and learning and synthesis and writing need to stay laser-focused. But they don’t.
Because I allow this little rodents to swarm and nip around my brain—or as Tim Urban describes his Procrastination Beast—the Instant Gratification Monkey—to take over the wheel and guide the ship to…. to nowhere in particular….so that its hard to tell when you get there, and you might as well take one or ten more random turns and see where you end up.
As Tim points out, it is the IMPORTANT TASKS WITHOUT DEADLINES that are the worst and produce the most angst and guilt and self-loathing. If I have a bill coming due in three weeks, yes, I’m likely to wait 2.75 of them before I act, but in the last few hours, the PANIC MONSTER comes and shoves the monkey and mice out of the way, and I DO THE THING.
And it feels so good when I do it that I wonder why did I wait so long?
But for those things—like writing a chapter for the book or a post like this for the newsletter—where there really are not points in time when they MUST be completed, how do I do a better job of disciplining myself and monitoring my time so that even THOSE very significant-to-me jobs get done and free me of the guilt of enjoying myself learning how to tie a TIMBER HITCH with two pieces of boot lace on my desk?
I’ll get back to you on that. Setting goals for subtasks and being accountable is something I need to plan for, right now. But first I need to go back and figure out the relationship of the BIG to the LITTLE dipper. And find H A Rey’s book on the constellations. Then I will sit down and finish the next newsletter about the pros and cons of using digital tools (APPS) to identify plants and mushrooms. (For real. Soon.)
I promise. But just now, why don’t you drop what you were doing and watch the video, won’t you, instead of that thing that is not easy or fun? Because I have just used up ten minutes of sand through the one-way HOURGLASS of LIFE to share this post. Humor me.
Damn The Instant Gratification Monkey!
Dear Lord, I meant MONKEY not MONEY, of course. The horror. It can't be changed for subscribers, who have now learned I am a flawed mortal after all. The pity. I wish I could promise to always take more time proof reading. I will spare myself the embarrassment of yet another unfulfilled promise. Gotta luv me.
Oh no Fred! Us retired folks sure have this problem in common. Oh well; you entertained and amused us this morning.
I am glad I proofread the previous sentence. My voice recognition software wrote abused instead of amused.