Maybe it’s this raging cold I brought home, or maybe it’s synchronicity at work, but a good online friend of mine, Tina Su, just posted another must read for microISVs: The Panacea for Putting Things Off.

Can you recall a time when you wanted to do something important, yet you’ve managed to make enough excuses to leave it for a later date? Putting something off once makes it easier to put it off again, and before you know it, several weeks have past and you still haven’t done it?

Ouch. I’ve been putting off merging a big chunk of Project X back into the main trunk just in this way: I get up, saying this will be the day I do that merge, if there’s issues I’ve got 4 layers of backups, c’mon, c’mon! Then it’s little excuses like I’ve got to do a post (irony intentional), or I’m on a big trip here, so what I have everything I need.

Soon, the tiny harmless lizard is an intimidating Godzilla.

Tina has some great advice on how this mental mechanism works and how to defeat it. Read her post. I did - four times to make damn sure it sunk in.

Her parting comment is a good one to ponder:

Life is as hard or as easy as we make it. The more we think about something (anything, not just tasks), the more amplified it becomes from our perception, because we have given it energy by focusing on it. Let’s not torture ourselves by adding more stress in our already hectic lives. It’s okay to be busy and not have time to finish things. Schedule it, forget about it and stick to the schedule. Treat it like an appointment with yourself. We respect others enough to show up at appointments punctually. Why don’t we do the same with ourselves?

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