That’s my new philosophy. Too often, I let a simple thing keep me from doing something. Of course, the something is often something I don’t want to do. At work, whenever a pile of yucky tasks accumulated, I often convinced myself to tackle them first and then move on to more interesting work–as long as the tasks weren’t going to take all day. And, of course, they often didn’t take that much time at all, but it always seemed like they would. I probably spent more time agonizing over doing the tasks than actually doing them.

Some examples from the last few days. I wanted to go for a bike ride, and even though I do enjoy bike riding, I’m out of shape enough that I know parts of the ride are going to be painful for me, so I start to think, maybe I shouldn’t go, I’m tired, I’ll go this weekend, I’m running behind schedule now anyway. And so I literally shook all those excuses and protests out of my head, just put on some sweats and my helmet and headed out. I also made myself do one more thing for class after dinner one night even thought, once again, I was telling myself that I was tired, I couldn’t concentrate, etc. And I just did it and I felt so much better.

And that’s the thing. I’ve actually enjoy my leisure activities so much more when I don’t have something hanging over my head. It sucks to be watching tv with my kids, thinking, after this is over, I have to read that article or do another load of laundry instead of just enjoying the moment. The other thing is, I’m trying not be manic about it either. I think I got that way when I was doing GTD by the book. Recognizing that I’m making silly excuses is one thing, but being frantic about checking everything off a list is another.

Tomorrow, look for a report on my latest PTO meeting. Here’s a hint: I’ll be putting my web skilz to work.