Dragging my feet

One of my clients in a meeting last week asked for some writing help. She likes my writing over her own and asked me to help prepare an important Go Live announcement draft on a project we’re working on together.

Without hesitation, I chimed in, “Yea, yea, no problems, I’ll start working on that right away.”

Before I speak up again in another meeting, I’m going to advise my brain and my mouth to get in the same room and hash things over before they agree to anything else. They obviously have a mind of their own, are working from different pages of the script, and need to get on the same page. Why do you ask?

Of course, I went back to my desk and found everything else to do, but sit my butt in my seat in front of my laptop and crank out the announcement.

Bills to pay, yup! Plenty of time for those. Emails to catch up on? Sure, why not. Checking up on personal stuff, like comments on my blog? Oh, why not, I’ve always got time for my devoted readers.

Sitting on the fence

I found every which way and then some to put off the writing. I’m a perfectionist and can occasionally put things off with the best of them, but when I get into that dilemma, it’s usually over larger projects that take months to complete. That’s a whole other story and I plan to write more about that in future. This time, however, I just fell into a simple procrastination trap and I didn’t feel like getting out of it.

The crazy thing was that I didn’t think the writing would take long. I knew most of what I wanted to say in the announcement. I could’ve probably dictated the announcement off the top of my head. If I knew more about ChatGPT, it’s something I’d probably feed it to write. In the end, I figured that once I started writing, the piece would “write itself,” but I still put it off.

I’m not sure why.

Taking my sweet time

As I expected, twenty minutes before I had to run to another meeting, I started writing and the words generally came flying out. I had a few holes that I needed others to weigh in on, but I was still able to crank out most of the piece. I got finished on time, but I hate putting myself under crazy deadlines when I don’t need to work that way.

So, yes, I’ve finished and I’m doing what I always do when I’ve overcome a tough deadline: I’ve promised myself to never be in this situation again.

Of course, I’m also doing something else: I’m putting my brain and my mouth in a timeout! A corner chair for both of them. No more speaking up in meetings without thinking about the other.

Let’s see how long this lasts!