What's Your Excuse?

"Not knowing it all is no excuse not to start."
- Judy Columbus

I am on a role this week! My last blog was about "controlling the spin" or basically getting control of yourself and your to-do list. I mentioned that I've been in this get-it-done mode which could quickly lead me to exhaustion and not wanting to do anything! So I put together a plan.

The first thing I realized is that if something wasn't easy, or I didn't already know how I was going to tackle it, it remained at the bottom of my to-do list, even though it may have been much more important than the things that were getting my attention. Then I realized that new things keep coming up, which really just meant I would never get to the end of my list and those important things that I wasn't sure how to approach would never get done. After reading the quote above, it made sense; I shouldn't let not knowing what I was going to do keep me from getting started in the first place.

I reorganized my list with what was important, regardless of how comfortable I was getting started on it. I planned to knock out one thing off that list each day and I've stuck to making it happen. A couple of the items that I was unsure about were actually pretty easy once I got into it, I just needed to block out the distractions and focus on getting it done. I'm still adding a few new things to the list and quickly getting them done "out of order," but as long as I focus on the one priority each day, it never seems to get overwhelming.

I'm applying this theory in both my business and personal life and I'm making progress all around. I haven't had to come up with any excuses of not being able to get something done because I've either already finished it, or I already have an executable plan in place to get it done.