Don’t Waste Your Time On Should Haves

Before I get started, I’d just like to say … for the record:
Post It Notes – 0
Distractions – 1

Yesterday, I revealed a dirty little secret. I am easily distracted. I was surprised to learn that most of my friends suffer from the exact same problem. Alicia calls it Information Overload and suspects that we’ll end up with a text book diagnosis before too long. Manually induced ADD. It’s coming. You read about it here first (probably not, but ya know).

Today, I made a decision to begin taking steps toward rectifying the information overload in my life… or, at the very least, DETAIL overload.

• I deleted the weight loss and book blogs I began last year on WordPress. They never received the time I should have put into them, but the self recriminiations that came from not getting them off the ground the way I felt I should were a constant mental and emotional drain.
• I am tearing down my square foot gardens. I am not giving up on gardening completely, just for the rest of this year.  I haven’t found the time nor energy to care for the plants like I wanted.  I’m giving myself permission to put this on hold.
• I am automating all of our household bills. One of my favorite bloggers/authors, Ramit Sethi is fanatical about automating as much of your money as you can.  This makes so much sense to me, but being such a control freak has kept me from going ahead with what I know I should do.  Time’s up on that one.
• I’m going to take an hour this weekend and prioritize my projects. I will only move to the less important ones when the critical ones are completed.  Anything below 5 on the list is on indefinite hold.
• I’m buying a shredder. Did you just think WTF? Every time I go through the filing paperwork or clean up a stack of paper in the house, I pull out 5 or 10 more pieces of paper that I have To Do notes scribbled on.  I’m keeping the important stuff and getting rid of everything else.  If it doesn’t make the priority list, it’s history.

What else do you think I should do to minimize my distractions and wasted time?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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