Lazy. It's Not A Hobby. It's A Lifestyle.

It occurs to me, and not for the first time, that one of the main problems I have with maintaining a blog is that I'm bone lazy. 

Now, I'm reasonably successful in real life at hiding this disability (which should be on the ADA's list of Crippling Disabilities and get me my own parking space right next to the door, if there were any real justice in the world) and it seems that I should be able to use the same techniques here that I use out in real life to get a single damned thing done at least once in awhile. It turns out, however, that I really have no idea what those techniques are. 

This is rather a mystery as I've read, at last count, 157 books on organizing my life, prioritizing , motivating, managing, categorizing, brainstorming, mind-mapping, and all the rest of the desperately-determined, nose-to-the-grindstone hoopla that modern civilizations seem to base themselves upon. I am the Jack Handy of productivity books and software. 

I don't do any of that shit. And I've been too lazy to figure out what it is that I AM doing that's actually resulting in me at least putting on the appearance of being a mostly-solid, at-least-average-producing citizen. 

But after noticing that my blog was languishing and my rabid crowds of followers my many fans the occasional passersby who read it were commenting on the degree of languishment (languishocity? I always get those confused,) which abashed me considerably, I decided to take a shot at figuring it out.

(Can  "abash" be a verb? If I "abash" someone, or if he's been "abashed" by me, would it involve a baseball bat?)

So, I actually went to the effort of finding out why it is that I can, with all the best intentions in the world, promise and promise, but only occasionally do anything useful or productive. And the answer is....

DEADLINES.

When I have something due at a specific date and time that's going to affect my check, get me fired, or cause me to be abashed by large persons, it ALWAYS gets done, often with only minutes to spare. In fact, last week I had a project that I'd been working on for over a MONTH. I'd promised it by the end of the week because the guy who wanted it was going on vacation THIS week. And I got it done, too. At 4:51 on Friday afternoon. 

I'm glad to have THAT monkey off my back. 

Anyhow, it seems that the specific time/date due is the operative part, as I find that none of those categories will move me an inch if it's just requested/scheduled "as soon as possible," or "when you can," or "top priority."

Or, it may be triggered by a specific event occurring, which boils down to the same thing. For example, I said that I was going to post a redhead the next time I blogged, and here I am blogging:

BAM!

THERE YA' GO, AS PROMISED.

See how that works?

So, after this extensive 15 minute analysis of my work style (which took nearly two weeks for me to get around to doing) I've decided that what I need to do is set a deadline to get me off my ass and actually get something done on this page.

ATTENTION: There will be a new blog post on this page not later than 12:01, January 1, 2012. Guaranteed. Which will include another redhead, also. Perhaps two.

There, that ought to do it. Holy shiznuts, is it REALLY already December 26th? I gotta get going on that thing. 

First thing tomorrow.

In Our Next Episode: I have no freakin' clue. Check with me at 11:55 on December 31 and see what I'm cobbling together in a sweaty, last minute rush.