Hi, my name is Zach Reyburn, and I am a procrastinator.
I never realized the incredible power I had to procrastinate and the degree to which I was capable of exercising it until now, when the only person in my life who can hold me accountable is me. It’s actually impressive, though sad.
For example: I have wanted to workout regularly for years, but never made it a practice. At the beginning of last month, I decided that I was going to try to go to the gym twice a week. I thought the easiest way to facilitate this was to take everything preparatory out of the equation: I put on gym clothes every morning, kept my gym towel and gym headphones in my car, and kept my appointments to a minimum.
I never made it out the door. Turns out, I’m not very good at the whole “personal accountability” stuff.
This extends to my work, my personal relationships, my romantic relationships, and anything else it can touch. Without a nearly immediate deadline looming, I don’t get much done. If there is no external deadline, it is unlikely to get done by me.
I am sure you can imagine how problematic this is for a hopeful entrepreneur. If I’m being honest, I probably should have been able to launch my business in April or May. But that’s the problem: even when I had a few dates in mind, I blew past them without buckling down and completing preparations because the dates actually meant nothing.
Then this blog came along (which was actually a result of procrastinating my work further by using reprioritization). I realize I’m less than 2 weeks in, but for the first time in quite some time, I’m making good on a personal practice. Hell, I even got a day ahead, so the blog posts I write before going to bed get posted the next morning, instead of just publishing one whenever I get to it each day.
As I mentioned previously, I think this has something to do with feeling accountable to my future self. So, I decided that I’m going to milk this for all I can while I can. You, future Zach, are my new Accountabilibuddy.
On future posts, you’ll see a few symbols at the bottom. Maybe some will be labeled with the task they correspond to, and some might be unlabeled. If I accomplished that task that day, I’ll do something to show it: change the color, perhaps. I don’t intend for every symbol to be checked off every day, but at least a few should be.
Man, I hope future me is a lot better at this whole “personal accountability” stuff.
