10 Excuses I’ve Used Up This Month

by Jeffrey Tang · Comments

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I haven’t been as productive or focused or engaged this month as I should have, could have been. But instead of beating myself up over it, I’ve decided to take stock and move on.

So here’s my idea.

I’ll write down 10 specific excuses (out of many) that have gotten me into trouble this month. You guys do the same. If you want, you can share your list in the comments.

The goal is simple: don’t repeat excuses. Any excuse you’ve used this month is used up. Expired. You can’t use them anymore. So we’ll either have to get real creative with our excuse-making, or we’ll have to just buckle down and get things done.

Sound fair? I like the word “project.” You can make anything sound impressive by calling it a project. So let’s call this idea “The Excuse Project.”

The Excuse Project – September 2009

10 excuses I’ve used up this month:

  1. I’m really tired. I just need to rot my brain for a while.
  2. I’ve made some progress today. That’s good enough, isn’t it?
  3. But design is important too!
  4. Fast food isn’t that bad for me. And it’s convenient!
  5. I’ll just sleep five more minutes. Or ten.
  6. I need to wait for inspiration.
  7. I’ll get to work after I finish this episode.
  8. I don’t feel like it right now.
  9. I’ll just work harder tomorrow.
  10. They won’t care if I’m a little late.

Writing this list made me realize how many of my excuses are about procrastination. Almost all of them, in fact. That wasn’t planned as part of this post or anything. But it’s another example of how eye-opening it is to write things down. So while we’re on the subject, what excuse trends have you noticed in your life?

Join In!

There’s a lot of excuses out there, and tackling just 10 each month seems like a small number, especially if we’re targeting specific excuses. But we’ve got to start somewhere, right? And getting rid of 10 excuses a month is concrete and manageable, which is important. What’s more, if we really can eliminate these excuses from our repertoire, the cumulative effect will be tremendous.

Give this a try with me, and we’ll see where it takes us. We’ll keep each other honest. Keep me updated in the comments or on Twitter!

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  • annew
    Let's see, arghhh - just got back from the gym and it's after 4 - oh, there's the first excuse:

    1- I get stupid after 4 p.m.
    2- I don't want to go; it's dark and cold outside.
    3- But I don't understand facebook (can you hear the whine?)
    4- Paying bills this month scares me because a check hasn't arrived yet - yeah, I have enough money, but....
    5- But if I stop going there where will I find spiritual community?
    6- But my car (218,000 miles!) is paid for... I don't want payments. (Another whine.)
    7- I can't drive that far in my old car.
    8- I'll just eat one more cookie (a whole box full - have stopped that for the moment, but I don't trust myself.)
    9- I'm too old.
    10-It will take too much time from writing - I can use this almost anytime and it's usually bogus

    what a great idea... a wonderful meme to start... going to use the same idea over at my blog and give you credit of course.

    thanks
  • Just found you on "Zen Habits"!
    This is a great idea! I join in this project. I have so many other things to remember so I "take care" of one or two mostly used excuse/s every month. I think that will work for me.

    Let's see if I get my first ten togheter:

    1. just ONE more check on facebook/twitter/mail
    2. first I have to organise all the other pictures from the old hard drive
    3. I need distraction
    4. I'm too tired/ no energy
    5. first I have to clean up the house
    6. I will forget if I don't do/read it now
    7. ten minutes after it looks the same - again
    8. but this is interesting!
    9. I'll do it later/tomorrow
    10. I'm not in the right mood

    Till 15 of november I will care about numer 1 (because this one is really annoying me) and number 6 (I'm working on the part 1 of "Zen to done" and think there's some connection ;) )
  • This is a great idea Jeffrey: my main excuse would be 'I can't write an article, I've got some social media stuff to do'.

    Love the new design as well
  • Keep up the good work. You just earned a subscriber. I love the excuse train as do so many people. A life without excuses would be a grand one indeed. This post reminded me of a video that I put up a few days ago. Leave it if you wouldn't mind giving me a plug. There's also a link to you tube, if your readers would rather view it there.

    (ME) http://www.brokendownlife.com/?p=102

    (youtube.com) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdd31Q9PqA
  • vagabond blue
    This is great Jeffrey!

    Here are my ten:

    1. I need to do more research.
    2. (after research) This has already been done, better than I could ever hope to do it.
    3. It's too hard to narrow this down.
    4. I can't figure out how to do this part.
    5. I need to edit this one more time.
    6. Power outage.
    7. Maybe this just wasn't meant to be.
    8. I have writer's block
    9. I now have insomnia *and* writer's block
    10. It's hard to say "no" to other people -- I'll come back to this later.
  • driveroll
    1 and 2 are huge for me, I have researchitis... the hardest thing is that sometimes it is indeed necessary and true
  • Careful with the *and* (9) you'll end up with endless possible combinations and kill the whole idea ;)

    1. I'll be more motivated later.
    2. I just had a 2hr workout, I'm tired.
    3. I'll just read one more blog post, perhaps leave a comment (this one by the way)
    4. Just one quick check on Twitter to see if I broke 60 (I haven't tsss)
    5. I still have to let this rippen, not ready for production.
    6. Hey if I had rushed this I would have left that out.

    Cool, I haven't filled my quota yet. Besides, I think n°6 is justifiable. Oops does that make it 7???
  • Oh number 5, haha. Have to admit that I'm a chronic editing addict. It takes me ages to finish writing things I care about, because I'm always going back over it. Got any suggestions on getting past the urge to edit?
  • I'm seriously the worst person to ask, since I have a blog that hasn't even seen the light of day yet. I'm working on curing this at Posterous, where I've been posting my raw ideas and some reaaally bad writing. Hopefully it will help me to get past this editing/perfection thing. :D

    I try to remember Voltaire's words: "The perfect is the enemy of the good."
  • Great Article Jeffrey (and great new design).

    Here are my 10 excuses:

    1. I'll start it, when I am back from vacation
    2. I'll have to write my article first (that one is a tricky one :))
    3. I just sleep another 10 minutes
    4. I feel just to tired now. Will do it tomorrow morning.
    5. I'll do it, when I move into my new house.
    6. I just need to learn more about it, before.
    7. I don't have enough time now.
    8. I could make it in 10 minutes less travel than yesterday.
    9. I'll first use another productivity tool or method :)
    10. I don't feel inspiration right now.

    Boy I feel like the king of procrastination right now. Thank God, that I still have people working for me :)
  • Wow, always thought that was my title! But you can have it ;-)

    Interesting trend that I notice with procrastination excuses - there's always an "after" condition. I'll get started "after" I finish this TV show. I'll get started "after" I clean my desk. But even when the "after" condition is met, we still don't get around to doing what we planned ...
  • driveroll
    Ok, here I go

    Actually I'm procrastinating right now, so at least writing this comment will make it useful.

    I think the biggest one I share with Matt

    1) It's part of my job to keep up to date
    2) I'm not loosing time on Twitter, I'm finding resources (which most of the time I just stack on top of the rest) and building valuable relationships for my business (but the business isn't ready to promote yet!)
    3) Right now I don't have enough distraction-free time to engage that task
    4) Maybe I'll find a better solution checking my Feedly (rss)
    5) I'll work twice as hard tomorrow (also shared)
    6) It's so much I don't know where to start.
    7) My work hours are flexible, so it doesn't matter if I do this later.
    8) I have to wait for him to get back to me on this.
    9) I feel lost between stuff I know only halfway.
    10) I know I should be doing X, but this is also valuable.
    11) If I was doing exactly what "my thing" is, I'd be more productive.

    Enough, now I have to actually get something done today. Thanks for the exercise!
  • #10 is a killer for me. That disconnect between what I know I -should- be doing and what I'm -actually- doing. And it's worse when I can rationalize what I'm -actually- doing into something worthwhile.

    Tweaking my Wordpress design falls solidly into this category, haha ...
  • This is again a great revelation on procrastination, I love it. Well done Jeffrey! I'll just add one excuse as a lot of the ones up already belong to my usual ones ;-)

    my excuse is "A few minutes left, I'll use them to achieve something". Ever realized how much time we (I mean I) do waste by trying to use every minute to be efficient?
  • mik
    How does one refute the "I dont feel like it" one though? It seems like theres no refusing that one - you just dont f*cking feel like it! Haha... any tips on how to get over this one?
  • I often find that, when I look a little closer at "I don't feel like it," it actually means something else, like "I don't know how," or "this isn't really an important goal." Or even "I just need to sit and put my feet up for a few minutes."
  • driveroll
    I thinks it's good to be honest about that... if you have another thing to do that feels better, do that and then come back to it... if it still doesn't feel like it....though shit, just do it as fast as possible to get it out of the way (that can be a good motivation)
  • Something that works well for me when I just don't feel like it: I force myself to do just a few minutes worth of work on whatever it is I'm tempted to put off. More often than not, I wind up getting into a good rhythm and getting over the temporary laziness. Of course, it doesn't work all the time ... hence this project :)
  • Great post - and great blog! Found you via Leo (Zen Habits)'s tweet. Ok ok here's mine :)

    1) If I just praise the author on a great article I wont have to be honest with myself and admit faults ;)
    2) It's part of my job to keep up to date
    3) I use an iMac (rather un-portable) and this room crushes my creativity
    4) I feel under the weather / no energy
    5) There are more important things to me than this
    6) I'm too tired for this
    7) It isn't so bad this way, as it is, really
    8) So I've spent all my money on coffee, I like coffee! I don't like bills!

    ... I'll get back to you on the rest :)
  • My favorites (?!) are:
    1. I'm too tired.
    2. Didn't I just do that yesterday?
    3. I only have 10 minutes, no point starting something new.

    I love the new title and design!
  • Actually, Melissa, didn't you just write a great post about the difficulties of sticking with exercise? I remember really liking that post. It takes courage to admit that you're human and that sometimes it's hard to take your own advice.
  • Jeffrey, LOVE the re-invention! LOVE the excuse project!

    Yup, guilty as charged. Here are my 10:

    1. Now's not the time.
    2. But there are so many good, inexpensive restaurants in the neighborhood.
    3. The floors are filthy!
    4. I'm just not sure what best next steps are.
    5. It's not a problem yet.
    6. But what I'm doing now is also important.
    7. I'm not feelin' it.
    8. But it's so fun to click around and see what everyone else is doing.
    9. In the grand scheme of things, it's just not that important.
    10.Not everything's about productivity.
  • Hey Belinda, great to see you here :) and thank you for the gracious compliments.

    Something I hadn't anticipated when starting this project ... the more other people post their excuses, the more things I realize that I use. More to work on, I guess!
  • I like this excuse project Jeffrey. I think that's very creative of you, and I can see myself going through the same excuses you pointed out in your list of 10. I guess giving excuses for us to procrastinate will always be there. The goal should be making less excuses as you go.
  • Thanks for the compliment, Karlil. Procrastination is definitely one of my problem areas, but I'm working through it a little bit at a time. Let me know how it goes for you!
  • Great idea Jeffrey!

    Here are my ten excuses:-

    1. I will just answer one more email - one more will not take that long.

    2. I must find out how that football team played.

    3. It is important for me to know what is going on around the world.

    4. I shall wash those dishes first - I am house proud after all.

    5. I must do my paper filing before writing my blog post - I need a clean office space.

    6. I must call my mother - abd be a good son always.

    7. I must connect on Facebook with that person I met last night.

    8. I must answer that call from a friend in the middle of my work day - it might be important.

    9. I will go to the gym now - after all I need to be fit and healthy as a writer.

    10. I will write my next blog post once I have tidied up all these old existing posts.

    Let me know which ones resonate with you:-)
  • #3 happens to me all the time. I always distract myself poking through news stories online. And #5's gotten me quite a few times too. I guess it's just about finding the balance between spending time cleaning up your workspace and just getting down to business. What do you think?
  • I think its brave to take on ten at a time. Don't think less of me for working on one excuse at a time as they do often tend to repeat, and I would rather build a habit of doing something positive in place of the behavior I felt needed excused.
  • Haha, I was originally going to try for even more, but I talked myself into being a little more circumspect with it. Maybe I'm being too ambitious, but I won't know until I try, I guess. I'll keep you posted :)

    And no, I don't think any less of you for focusing on one excuse at a time. In fact, that may turn out to be a better strategy. We'll see! Out of curiosity, what's the excuse you're trying to eliminate?
  • My excuse to get rid of, I don't know how. Whether I know how or not I
    can learn. So letting that stop me from at least giving something my
    best shot is a load of fertilizer.
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