{"id":300,"date":"2017-08-02T14:55:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T14:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/?p=300"},"modified":"2017-08-02T15:04:37","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T15:04:37","slug":"turning-excuses-into-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/2017\/08\/02\/turning-excuses-into-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning excuses into action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-303 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/08\/writers-block-300x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/08\/writers-block-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/08\/writers-block-150x75.png 150w, https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/08\/writers-block.png 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>At the Office<\/em> by <strong>Lona O&#8217;Connor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t tell me all your excuses. \u00a0I know &#8217;em all. \u00a0Heck, I&#8217;ve used them all myself. \u00a0When you find yourself falling behind on a goal, you have to learn to combat every excuse with a trick. \u00a0Remind yourself that excuses are lies. \u00a0Resolve not to believe them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Get back on track. \u00a0<\/strong>Here are some typical excuses and excuse busters aimed at getting you to laugh at your ability to sabotage your better instincts. \u00a0They will also help you get back on track toward a career goal, revive your abandoned project, or combat general procrastination.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I can get it done tomorrow.&#8221; \u00a0Right. \u00a0Sure you can. \u00a0Do it today anyway<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I can do twice as much tomorrow to make up for not doing anything today.&#8221; \u00a0 This ugly excuse is based on the fallacy that you have unlimited energy and time. \u00a0It also presumes that you won&#8217;t get hit by a truck tomorrow and be unable to work on your goal for six months.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I don&#8217;t have time.&#8221; \u00a0You don&#8217;t need time. \u00a0What you need is just half an hour.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m too far behind; I&#8217;ll never catch up.&#8221; \u00a0This is discouragement talking, and it&#8217;s particularly insidious because it has a grain of truth. \u00a0If you&#8217;ve stopped working on a task, it does seem that much larger when you face it again. \u00a0But much of that is distortion based on anxiety and guilt. \u00a0Start working on it right now and you&#8217;ll eventually catch up.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m scared.&#8221; \u00a0Well, you get points for being honest. \u00a0But you still don&#8217;t get to wiggle out of doing it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Half an hour.<\/strong> \u00a0The half-hour is an all-purpose excuse-buster. \u00a0It is best used for tasks that require chipping away, like filing and cleaning. \u00a0Rather than committing yourself to a large block of time, which is even more intimidating, just commit to half an hour. \u00a0If at the end of the half-hour you really don&#8217;t want to continue, you can stop. \u00a0But commit to another half-tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>For some work, half an hour isn&#8217;t enough. \u00a0For serious brain work, it&#8217;s best to commit several hours, more if you can. \u00a0When I was writing my book, I tried getting up an hour earlier. \u00a0I did get some work done, but soon became sleep deprived. \u00a0Then I switched to half-day or whole-day sessions on weekends and found I was much more productive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Worst first. \u00a0<\/strong>I&#8217;ve mentioned this one many times over the years. \u00a0There is always some aspect of the job that is scarier than the rest. \u00a0So sometimes, even though you think you&#8217;re working toward a goal, you&#8217;re actually working around that one scary task. \u00a0If you can be honest for one minute, you can identify it: \u00a0an unpleasant phone call, confronting someone, whatever.<\/p>\n<p>If you do the worst first, you will free up so much anxiety that you will be even more productive after you have done that first, worst task.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, if you are still unmoved by all my positive thinking, lets&#8217; get morbid. \u00a0Think about somebody you know who died too young. \u00a0Think of all the things that person missed out on. \u00a0Then, imagine yourself on your deathbed today. \u00a0What would you regret not having done? \u00a0Do it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the Office by Lona O&#8217;Connor Don&#8217;t tell me all your excuses. \u00a0I know &#8217;em all. \u00a0Heck, I&#8217;ve used them all myself. \u00a0When you find yourself falling behind on a goal, you have to learn to combat every excuse with a trick. \u00a0Remind yourself that excuses are lies. \u00a0Resolve not to believe them. Get back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}