The frustration of procrastination

I’ve been finishing a major project over the last week or so. I’ll be writing more about it in future posts, but first I thought I’d share a lesson learned during the process.

During the early and middle stages of the effort, there were a number of times, I thought about details that needed to be done. I kept telling myself that I’d do them later. I thought it’d be easier to work on them all at the same time during the final phase of the project.

Wrong.

As you might expect, many small details turned into a major hassle as I was trying to get the project completed. I had a tough time doing all the tiny tasks that I had to finish first.

I thought back on all the times I put off doing small, simple stuff. Later, I paid the price for procrastinating.

In business, I’m often faced with similar choices. I’m learning that it’s never a good idea to say to myself, “I’ll do that later.”

Steve DeVane

Business boost — build relationships

Earlier today I was putting our riding lawn mower in the shed. My son had mowed the front yard for probably the last time this year.

The boards that we usually use to help the mower ride up into the shed were missing, but I thought I could just drive the mower over the ridge between the ground the concrete floor of the shed.

I was wrong.

The mower got part of the way in the shed and stopped. I put it in the reverse and tried to back out. It wouldn’t move that way either.

Tried it again in forward. Nothing.

Reverse. Nothing.

I tried it both ways a couple of more times, before finally becoming convinced that it was stuck.

So, I turned the mower off, got down and manually pushed the mower the rest of the way into the shed.

It occurred to me that sometimes that’s the way it is with our businesses and our lives. We have all these high-tech ways to get leads and to contact people, but ultimately you have to make a personal connection.

People join people they know, like and trust. That takes building relationships.

Next time your business needs a boost, be sure you’re making personal connections with other people.

Steve DeVane