Ate the Frogs

Every Friday, I feel a kind of relief that, Friday night, I can watch movies or TV series with no consequences for sleeping late. However, last Friday, inspired from https://os.me/eat-that-frog/ I decided to write a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish before going to bed over the weekend. I wrote down the things I dread the most, but have no choices in them as well – like doing laundry being one of them. Given the prioritization schema, it was the frog that had to be done. There were others too, not the ones I dislike but just arduous task, one being completing my quilt bag and it takes a lot of concentration but can be in done in two hours. 

I prioritized to the best of my abilities and wrote down around eleven things for the Weekend in total. Now starting Saturday, I ate the Laundry frog, then did Yoga, completed my bag, did dance practice, and almost completed eight things in total. That left me with three tasks for Sunday. 

Sunday Frogs

Starting Sunday, I thought of procrastinating the tasks, as I had a creative epiphany and almost instantly started working on a new project, thinking, I had entire day ahead of me to get the rest of the three things done in my list. Around lunchtime, I still hadn’t done Yoga practice, nor made any lunch, thinking I would just make something simple and was engrossed in the new project. We got a call from a friend, who asked if we could eat together, and decided to bring lunch for us. In my mind, I made a calculation, that this would last maybe for next four hours and then I could get my things done in the evening. My calculation and expectation fell off the roof, and our friend decided to leave us after seven in the evening. That allowed room for only one of the items I had planned for Sunday, and rest of them just never happened. Rest were crucial for the week ahead, however, it didn’t pan out as expected. 

Monday

Come Monday, and things turned out totally unexpected, the things I missed on Sunday were kept for Monday, and I had to take my husband for emergency checkup to the hospital. The waiting in the hospital took almost half of our day, and the things expected for Monday, never even got close to being done. My husband is fine, yet the last two days almost gave a life lesson on valuing Now, and making progress without hoping that something can be done tomorrow at a particular time.

Habitual Procrastination 

The events of the weekend taught me a valuable lesson of valuing “Now”. I realized how important it is to write down (even if mentally) the tasks that need to be done, and doing them as there can be unexpected times ahead that take away our attention from a lot of things that we could do  for growth. If I don’t even prioritize, I will never know what all I missed in the first place. I am now making a conscious effort to build in the habit of eating frogs and hopefully in forty days, it becomes effortless for me.