One of the things I’ve come to realize—at least for me—is that I procrastinate more if I have more to do.

It’s as if my brain looks at my list of things to do during the day and thinks NO TOO MUCH, MUST FIND WAYS TO DO WHAT I WANT.

I’ve been trying to pay fairly close attention to what processes make me most efficient in the long run, and “be reasonable about what your brain can accomplish in a day” is the #1 thing.

If I give myself an amount of work where I look at it and think, “wow, I can knock this all off and then go watch Netflix guilt free” the amazing thing is that I am MUCH more likely to knock it all off.

Whereas if I give myself an amount of work and think, “huh, if I start immediately maybe I will get to sleep on time” nothing happens.

There is no reward for completion. The only way my brain gets rewarded in that scenario is by procrastinating.

One of the conclusions I have come to is that I just need to say no repeatedly and often.

But increasingly, I have come to the conclusion that the struggle in life is not to make yourself into a different person to meet whatever aim you want, but to take the person you are, with love, in the direction you want to go.

Things I need to work on:
* saying no
* really saying no, not just saying, “Oh I wish I could, but <insert socially acceptable reason> which invites debate and counterproposals
* just really saying no

Along those lines, I’m reminded of the woman who made an assistant for herself with a male name (who was just herself with a male name on the email account) who would say things like, “She’s not available then” so people would pay attention to her boundaries.