Procrastination: What (Not) Watering My Plants Taught Me About Getting Shit Done!
I almost didn’t write this article today, almost! But I did, so read on.
I have to water the plants on my balcony everyday. But despite being on the balcony everyday for a long period of time, because I work there, I fail to water them on most of the days. I even had got Two dedicated plastic bottles to be used for the watering, but this did not help.
Today I realised why. Let me try and break this down.
My Objective: To ensure that the Plants are watered and maintain their health
My Task: To Fill the bottles of Water from my bathroom which was about 30 Feet away and water the plants — EVERYDAY!
My weekly Success rate: About 42% (3 out of 7 days)
So, every time that I did manage to water the plants, I left the bottles near the plants, on the balcony. So every time that I saw this, in my mind, I was already at the end of the process, in my mind the water was already in the plants, hence the empty bottles. If the bottles are empty, that means that there is water in the plants ergo, I have completed my task! But the plants needed water, not the bottles, and the water was in the bathroom 30 feet away, that was the source. I was essentially witnessing and focussing on the completion of the job, the end point of the process, the result of the project. I spent a lot of time where the end process would take place and I had a clear view of the stakeholders of the process i.e the plants and the bottles. But I was missing a vital element in the process, the water. As far as I was concerned, the bottles were empty and it was already at the end of the process (of watering the plants). So why in the world would I want to START something that I had already done, right?
See, I am a serial procrastinator, and this got me thinking. Is this the reason that most of us procrastinators…procrastinate? If you are like me, it is not just that we don’t finish things, but more often than not, projects get delayed because we don’t start things at all. We are focussing on finishing the task or more specifically, the finished task, rather than focussing on starting it in the first place.
Our bottles are near the plants and NOT near the Water source. Our focus is at the place of emptying, not the at the place of filling up. The bottles are the tools and skills needed to complete the task, the bottles are the agents of transformation and action. The water is the Creativity, knowledge and expertise required for the task, which will add value to the end product or objective.
My focus was on the finish line, not the starting line. Instead of going to the starting line, getting On the marks, Getting set and Going… I was lounging at a VIP tent down at the Finish line waiting for me to finish a race that I hadn’t even started running yet.
The solution was very obvious, instead of keeping the empty bottles near the plants i.e the finish line, after I had watered the plants, I kept them in the bathroom, the source of the Water i.e the starting line. More specifically, near the tap so that I HAVE to fill it and I am reminded of it everyday/ time that I go in there. By doing this, everyday, I found myself where I needed to be in order to finish my task…the STARTING Point!
Where have you kept your bottles?
