Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Don't put off for tomorrow...

...What you could get done today. When I was in high school I used to wake up before dawn to get my hair done like the "other girls;" with naturally wild curly hair and incredible volume, I of course wanted my hair straight! I remember sitting in front of the mirror with my arms extended painfully out to my farthest wing span blow drying and then ironically using the curling iron to ummmm... curl it again! Then I would sit with a notebook and pen in hand to start scribbling my daily list of "things to do." I was 14 when these lists began - my "day of details". I remember the frustration even then as I scribbled my almost minute by minute schedule of the projected events of the day. Even then I was an obsessive neurotic overachiever!

My mother found my stack of lists one day, each item painstakingly numbered by order of importance and then perfectly struck through in a thin black ink line - only black - never blue - all of my completed daily achievements.
(Now I use yellow highlighter to recognize my completed tasks 'cause I'm also a recognition whore.) She snatched them from me and yelled to remind me in case I had forgotten, "You're just a child! You don't have lists of things to do, or places you have to be, or cures for cancer you have to discover! Can't you just learn to just BE!"

I thought about this morning ritual I had half a lifetime ago as I awoke this morning to begin scribbling into my "List of things to do NOTEBOOK"... Not a lot has changed, well except for the yellow highlighter and the fact that you probably could not pay me to wake up early in the morning to do my hair, except that the list keeps getting longer no matter how many things I manage to highlight done.

Launching this business has become another infinite list of "daily details." Where should I post my designs? Should I learn that software program, create that other account? What do I do this morning that will net me the best results tomorrow?

Time management... The ultimate daily affirmation for the self-employed:

I use my time wisely and only do the most productive thing every minute of the day!

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today... but what if there is never a tomorrow? Would I have chosen to do the same things today?