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Last night was a perfect example of sabotaging myself. It was 8pm, and I’d completed nearly everything on my list for the day. You know, the really important things, like recording transfers in Quicken, watering the orchids, running an errand, and getting the ham out of the freezer. There were about 15 of those types of things on the list. “All” I had left were the two most important things — the two things that were directly related to me increasing my income and reaching my overall goal of financial independence. So what did I do?

I asked my husband if he’d like to watch a DVD. We spent the next 3 hours doing that, and then went to bed.

Now you might think I just had too much to do and wanted to relax, but that wasn’t really the case. The other stuff really hadn’t taken all that long, and wasn’t exactly stressful anyway. And believe it or not I’ve gotten much better recently about not adding more stuff to my list than I can accomplish in a day. (Even in this case, I still had a spare three hours. What I’d needed to do probably would only have taken an hour and a half.) Yes, it was definitely a case of self-sabotage.

So how do I prevent that?

First, I’m going to continuing monitoring my list so that it does not get out of hand. Little things will have to either not get done at all or be postponed. I will also highlight the single most important thing each day, and be sure I get that item done FIRST (instead of focusing like I have been on the urgent or the easy.)

Second, I’m going be focusing on getting everything possible done before noon. (I won’t be able to do everything before then, since I have a regular job too, but I’m going to make a strong effort and get the things that CAN be done by then done.)

Third, I’m enlisting my husband’s help in keeping me focused. We’ve agreed not to watch movies unless they are planned a day or two ahead of time to help keep temptation at bay. I’ve also asked him to remind me that I want to get my important stuff done before spending hours doing something else. (Like uh, surfing the internet.)

Finally, I’ll keep this quote from Walt Disney in mind: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” If I just do ONE thing each day toward reaching my big goals, I’ll eventually get there. And dangit, if I have to break them down to the level of “Write down the next smallest step. Do that next smallest step.” I will.

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