“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.”
– Napoleon Hill
On Tuesday I ran out of work. By staying in over the weekend I managed to accomplish everything I had to. Because of the cold, and because I didn’t feel like going anywhere, I decided to stay in and goof off. I spent the day doing nothing. It was terrible.
By late afternoon I wanted to do something. I intended on writing some content for my affiliate site. I actually could not write. When I sat down it was impossible for me to formulate a single sentence. I felt physically ill.
I ended up just sitting there. It was like I’d transformed into a slug. My mind kept making up excuses for me not to write anything. I wanted to write, but my brain was sabotaging me.
I sunk into depression for about an hour. My entire mind was going haywire. For reasons unknown I was completely incapable of doing anything.
After awhile I managed pick up an index card and write down some tasks. I started by doing some reading. It was a simple goal and I easily met it. After that I moved on to some loftier projects. By midnight I’d met most of my goals and chalked up quite a few points for my daily challenge.
A few lessons I took away from my experience:
- If you don’t have a focus you’ll end up aimless.
This might sound a little obvious, but it’s true. It’s easy to pick up a game or browse YouTube, only to discover that half the day has already passed. 24 hours is a lot longer than most people realize.
- Being aimless sucks.
I theorize that a good 80% of depression cases are caused by idleness. If you have something that you’re working towards, you won’t have time for self doubt.
- Motivation builds on itself.
This is something I often forget. When you’re winning it’s easy to expand and take on new challenges. If you’re loafing around a simple task will feel daunting.
- You can only blame yourself.
I could have sat around being miscible and used the weather or “writer’s block” as a scapegoat for my inactivity. It probably would have even made me feel better… For a few minutes.
While I didn’t have a severe case of depression, I was pretty bummed for several hours. By giving myself something to do I managed to take my mind off my problems and get myself back on track.