I have learned (through painful experience, the way in which the most effective lessons seem to be delivered) that it is fairly important for me to act immediately when a reminder or a new idea occur to me. I'd like to say that's because I receive a lot of spiritual promptings which, when obeyed, save lives and lighten hearts on a regular basis, but the truth is that I have a holey memory. Hole-y. Like Swiss cheese - old, dried-up, crumbling, faintly green, and full-of-holes Swiss cheese into which excellent ideas and motivations rapidly fall, never to be seen again... or at least not until it's too late to get off the bus and take care of them. I've trained myself to pause before leaving my bedroom or going up or down the stairs to see if I have everything I need or if I've forgotten anything - still not foolproof (shut up) but a definite improvement. Also, in addition to remembering things I need to pick up or put away or turn off or whatever, I have lots of good ideas - but those ideas have an extremely limited shelf life on the extremely unstable middle-aged shelf that is my brain. An idea may teeter for a few seconds, but if I don't grab it and do something about it (like nail it down with a mental thumbtack and a mental shoe, otherwise known as 'take care of it regardless of current activity') it falls quickly and silently into the abyss below the top of my spinal column. (I've told y'all how much I hate to exercise, right?)
ANYWAY, if I think "I should turn off the heater before I leave", DO IT NOW. When it occurs to me that I ought to take an umbrella today and should put one in my bag, DO IT NOW. After preparing a potential dissertation topic presentation and then realizing that the 2,000-word proposal for that dissertation is due two weeks later,
look up the requirements from the course
go online and find sample dissertation proposals so that you know how it should look
get the resources together/at least skim the books/find journal articles
AND DO IT TWO WEEKS AGO, NOT TWO DAYS BEFORE IT'S DUE.
Honestly, it's not like you're going to be able to play the "well, now I know what I should do for my next Master's degree" card AGAIN. Figure it out, and do it now.
Sheesh.
2 comments:
How do you think the "Do it NOW" system applies to ideas about eating cake/cookies/chocolate? Should one always jump on the "Do it NOW" or would it be better to wait and ponder the pros and cons of a second piece of cake (for example...)?
My problem is that, no matter my philosophy, I have absolutely no difficulty (AT ALL) with Do it NOW when it comes to cake/cookies/chocolate. The practice for Do it NOW in those cases SHOULD be 'DO Drink a glass of water NOW, then wait 15 minutes and see if you still want the extra treat...' Rewiring is needed!
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