Many people know how it is not to work on particular taks, which then is allowed to lie unsolved. I remember once this issue was part of a course I made, and a most telling example was the participant who had to have not one but two sleepless nights in a row before undone tasks was done.

When I think back on my life, to get away from something has been a familiar behavior. You can call it postponement, if you prefer. I think basically the mechanism is the same. Whether it has to do with having too much to do, I do not believe is the point, but rather perhaps having too many activities ongoing uprioritised at the same time. To postpone or not doing may be conscious decisions, but in some situation less clear ones.

As an example, I look at how I got away from using Facebook. I had been on holiday and a small, sneaking internal self-talk led to one delay after another. I’ll write this afternoon, tomorrow, in the weekend etc, which is repeated and repeated. The problem may well be that it is not just a single day this mechanism is true, it may continue, as you see, for a very long period – and it is forgotten that something should have been done.

It seems important to make clear to oneself that this kind of get away from, which I write about, are not in the category of miracles – something that just happens. It’s not exactly something that just happens. It is active decisions – a choice between doing what one would or should and not doing it. These decisions will always be heard as the internal dialogue. It may be there are many throughout the day (I’ll wait till after lunch, I’ll wait till late afternoon, I’ll do it tonight), but suddenly the time has elapsed and an excuse to wait until tomorrow is obvious.

If the same thing happens day after day, it may be the job never is resumed – or it happens by “coming back and proceed with”.

Interestingly enough, this phenomenon has not changed after I retired. It has as always to do with commitment.

How do you feel about this phenomenon?

This article was written in Danish, translated to English by Google Translate and ajusted to be – I hope – readable.

An exampel might help.

I found a picture, which shows it is a good idea to do something else and get on.

Look at it here, and tell what your association is.

Sometimes notetaking is writing a lot of information while (trying to) listen, and later make the notes of the material you want to save.

Sometimes you don’t takes note, but make them on the spot. Are you familiar with mind mapping you probably know what I am saying here.

This post is inspired of a blogpost by Robert Plank. I suggest you read his point of views after attending a seminar.

Here is the link to his blogpost: Always Write a Report About What You Learned.

After reading and deciding what to do in the future, please return to the ressources of this blog.