When You Hear the Garbage Truck...RUN!

When You Hear the Garbage Truck...RUN!

This morning I thought I hit the snooze button, but I turned off the clock.

Somewhere in the realm of my doziness, I heard the rumble of a truck.

The next voice I heard was my Tina’s: “Isn’t today Garbage Day?”

What followed is still a blur...Jeans! Shirt! (sniff it, OKAY!) Socks! Boots! (check hair in mirror) Red Sox hat!

Ran down the stairs, doing my best to multi-task as I tried to recall which bathroom and office cans were full the last time I saw them.

Burst through the basement door into the garage, hit the door opener button (were you ALWAYS *this* slow?!?).

Grabbed the household trash bin and sprinted down the driveway, with apologies to all nearby woodland creatures who were attempting to enjoy a quiet morning in the woods of Weare, while my size-12 clodhoppers echoed on the pavement.

Dashing back up the driveway, I scanned the garage floor for all the bags of as-yet-unsorted recycling and quickly separated them.

No time to crush aluminum cans, you remain tall today!

Second sprint down the driveway, woodland creatures becoming increasingly annoyed by my intrusions.

Did I get it all down to the curb in time?

Yes I did.

Was that rumbling I heard actually our garbage truck?

Nope.

I’m not sure of any truck actually existed, or if it was just my subconscious saying:

“Hey, ding-dong...you should have done this last night!”

“Hi, my name is Steve...and I’m a procrastinator.”

“Hi Steve!”

Ugh...

How often do you do this to yourself?

We have all these things we need to do.

We know we need to do them...yet we push them off into a non-descript phantom scheduler of sorts, until we wake up with the sudden realization that our garbage truck (or similar 3rd-party responsibility) is turning the corner of our street.

What’s that old saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin?

“Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

Yeah...good old Ben and I haven’t always seen eye to eye on this one.

I’m better than I used to be, but I still have my moments when my guardian angels go to HR to lodge a complaint and seek a raise.

Knowing that this has been part of natural wiring for much of my life, my team and I now use on-line calendars with beeps, buzzes and alerts, plus a task-oriented system to keep track of my tasks and help me get them done in a timely manner.

So what happened to this week’s Tuesday night ‘Trash Day’ alarm?

Apparently, someone accidentally turned it off.

I won’t say this person’s name, but our security cameras caught a glimpse of him flying down the stairs...wearing jeans, boots, a Red Sox cap and a shirt that apparently still smelled clean enough to wear again today.

What areas of life are you procrastinating in?

How can you set up a system of alerts and scheduling to get them done in a PRO-active versus RE-active manner?

Your guardian angels, your sanity and your local woodland creatures will thank you!

If you’d like to have a conversation with a guy in Procrastination Recovery, even though he slipped up today, visit

SteveChats.com

and let’s discuss ways to help you become more productive...and less stressed!

https://www.motivationalfirewood.com/main