Time management

There is a time management technique called ABC. Categorize your tasks into A (most important), B (next) and C (least). The experts tell you to work on the A list and forget about B and C. In fact, if C includes a stack of papers, they suggest you toss the stack in the bottom drawer and cite that in 6 months you'll be able to throw them away, never having done a thing with them. The problem is that the C and B items are often more interesting, easier to tackle or take little time, so we work on them to check them off the list and feel as though we've accomplished something.

So it is with life. We are distracted by the easy, the less time consuming, the more interesting regardless of what is on our to-do list or what is most important. For the last decade one of my resolutions has been to update my will. It really won't take long. I've made notes and the decisions. I don't find the task depressing, but somehow have not gotten around to it. Why is that? I think it is because no one is holding me accountable. Without that, or without an extraordinary event like a fatal diagnosis, I am not motivated to make updating my will an A list item.

Another issue for procrastinators revolves around a key word in the above paragraph - distracted. Given all of the options available to us every minute of every day, it is a miracle that we get anything done at all. Why do the laundry when there might be a new email, text or post? Why return that phone call when a colleague needs help?

While I never have been a member of the I-work-best-under-pressure club, I do think that items that have no deadline can remain unaddressed until something changes that status. There are many library books I have read because an email reminded me that their due date was approaching. There are many that went unread even after one renewal because, with all of the distractions of life, the title didn't make the priority list.

Finally, for me at least, the last excuse for not taking care of A items is that they are out of sight. I moved into my apartment a year ago and during the move threw stuff in the trunk of the car. Last spring I even changed cars and faithfully had the dealership switch the boxes into the trunk of the new car. How often do I open my trunk? Maybe a couple of times a month, but I'm usually focused on putting in or taking out something new that has found a place there with no problem. Maybe this fall I'll get around to checking out those boxes still in the back.

Or, maybe not.

Marilyn