The title of this article sounds simple, but it is amazing how often people (including me) sit and look at a problem, like a stack of papers, and get so down about all the work that needs to be done that they do nothing and stay that way for days or even months!
The point of the article is to make these people feel better by showing that they are not the only ones who get stuck when they have too many things to do. It also gives one or two ways to fix the issue.
We have all failed to do things. Expert on the Internet and philosopher Frank Garon writes:
"I went to the gym three to four times a week and worked out like a madman last summer. I knew I was in the best shape of my life. But then I got busy, and in the last 7 months I've only been there once. Now, I could worry about that all the time, or I could just calm down and go to the gym tomorrow to do something about it.
Things that I've been meaning to do for months are still on my desk. I don't have to keep staring at this pile. I can DO something about it. I can put in my CDs by Guy Finley and John Di Lemme and feel better right away. I can either cry about something or do something about it."
Frank's solutions are not to worry about what he hasn't done, play some music he likes, and do something about the things that still need to be done. He knows better than to cry over spilled milk, so he decides to do something to make things right.
The Jewish Rabbis taught their students how to study the Talmud, which is a very long book, by telling them the story of a pile of dust. People asked two men to move a huge pile of dirt. One man soon gave up saying: "This won't ever be moved! It's much too large."
The other man worked hard every day, making small steps forward. It looked like he wasn't getting anywhere, but the pile started to look a little smaller after a while. Finally, he got rid of everything and got his reward.
To use another image, if you are willing to chip away at a problem like a woodpecker, you will eventually cut through the whole tree and the problem will be gone. Your problem could be debt, so chip away at it by fixing the small ways your money is leaking away.
Maybe, like me, you pay a monthly fee to join several sites that you rarely, if ever, visit. You don't have to do much to stop being a member.
People might owe you money that they don't pay you back. Make the effort to write down who owes you money and then ask for it. Most people who owe money are good people who just forgot to pay and need a reminder to help them remember.
You could also pay someone else to do the things you haven't done. Before, I paid someone else to mow my lawns, which saved me a lot of time and energy that I could put toward more important and urgent tasks.
You could say, though, that mowing the lawn is great exercise, so you can save money and be healthier if you do the physical work yourself.
Housework can take a long time and take some skill to do well. If you don't mind having a stranger in your home, pay someone who can do it faster and better. You could also pay a family member to do the work.
Leverage is the idea that you can get someone else to do your work for you in exchange for money. This idea is used a lot on the internet. The whole affiliate system is based on giving people money for promoting your business. Leverage is also at the heart of network marketing.
Sometimes, you might want to pay someone to do skilled work for you and teach you how to do it yourself. I pay my web designer to work on my websites and show me how he does what he does.
This gives me some independence so I don't have to call him up every time I want to make a small change. It also saves me time because I can use an expert web designer's skills.
So don't be sad about what you haven't done. Either fix things little by little or pay someone else to do it.
