I could probably be more efficient with my time. Do more in fewer minutes.

But then what do I do with the extra time? Take on more projects and responsibilities? Get more things and hobbies?

Nah.

I want fewer projects. Fewer things.

Deep focus on the couple things that matter the most.

The desk needs to be dusted. Floor vacuumed. Fingernails clipped. Furniture assembled. Closet organized. Calls made. Mail checked.

Sounds pretty unappealing to most.

But for a procrastinator with a home office, these things are most tempting.

Sure, they need to get done.

But at the end of the year, they probably won’t be in the discussion about your results.

Right?

Now, get to work. You can do all that fun stuff later when you don’t need your energized brain.

Scattered office. Scattered brain. Scattered work.

Neat office. Neat brain. Neat work.

Your call.

PS. This post was supposed to be posted last Friday. I hit “Save Draft” instead of “Publish.” Clearly, my office is a mess at the moment.

If you think you’re busy, think about this:

What if someone asked your busy-self to join them on a last-minute trip to paradise; wherever paradise is for you.

The trip is free, but you have one hour to get your affairs in order.

You’d figure out how to get un-busy, right?

You’d get all that stuff done in an hour and head to paradise, right?

Cool.

Isn’t that a great way to figure out what’s actually a priority?

Every morning, you’re given a handful of decision-making dollars.

Each decision you make throughout the day has a price. Big decisions cost more than smaller ones.

For each decision, big or small, the prices goes up throughout the day.

Decisions don’t take credit cards or IOU’s. They’re cash only.

You get to allocate your decision dollars how you wish.

But remember this: Even mindless scrolling on your phone requires you to make many decisions. Examples include:

• Read / don’t read.
• Click through / don’t click through.
• Comment / don’t comment.
• Share / don’t share.

And these little decisions all have a price — prices that not only add up, but go up throughout the day.

So how are you spending your decision dollars today?

Early and often?

I try to make a few big purchases with mine.

Your compulsions.

Not the obsessive compulsions. Just the irresistible ones.

They prevent you from doing real work. From getting results.

If you had to pay to do ’em, would you do them as much?

The Compulsions Jar — Paying for the Privilege

This week, let’s try a compulsions jar.

Anytime you want to act upon your compulsion, you FIRST put a dollar in the jar.

For example, “Oh, man, I really want to check Facebook. Here, Compulsions Jar, here is your one-dollar payment.”

And so the steps go like this:

Step 1: List ten compulsions. It’s a big number, but it prevents us from engaging in non-listed compulsions.

For the record and your reference, mine* will be:

• Checking Gmail.
• Checking Google Analytics.
• Checking Avantlink.
• Checking Twitter.
• Checking Facebook.
• Checking YouTube.
• Checking Instagram.
• Checking Google News (or all online news outlets, for that matter).
• Playing with my dog Lucy.
• Checking the fridge for snacks.

*Interestingly, the last two were the toughest to think of. No doubt, I’d have done both a bunch to avoid doing real work or paying for the privilege to act compulsively.

Step 1.5: Put said list near your workspace.

Step 2: Get a Mason Jar.

Step 3: Pick a charity to give to. Mine is ALS-TDI.

Step 4: Set a calendar appointment for Friday afternoon to count the money.

Step 5: Donate.

The Results

Two things can happen during this experiment.

1. You get results by not acting upon your compulsions.
2. You get results by donating some dollars to charity.

I will let you know how it goes for me next Monday.

Until then, let’s get some results this week.