Procrastination, Goals, & Scooping Poop
Now that’s a title
It just so happens that when you have a backyard for your two dogs to hang out in, they have total freedom to poop as much as they want. Back when we lived in an apartment, the (one) dog only pooped outside when we took him on a walk.
Even then he didn’t poop every time.
But let me tell you, when they have the freedom to do it, they really do it.
I had put scooping off and put it off and finally, FINALLY, I went outside to scoop the poop that had rapidly accumulated at a two-dog-freedom rate.
I started a 1.5 hour podcast from The Futur (feat. Aaron Draplin, highly recommend), put on my -18 degree-rated Duluth Trading Company Coat, and went to work.
After scooping and scooping and bagging and more scooping, I re-entered my warm home to discover:
It only took 15-minutes.
If I had been more habitual about scooping poop, I wouldn’t have had to scoop so much. Even scooping once every two days would take less than a minute.
Here’s what hit me at the conclusion of my 10-pound poop scooping journey:
I. The amount of energy and time it takes to do a task is all in your head. And it’s probably inaccurate.
Studies say that we vastly underestimate the amount of time it takes us to perform a task. I agree in some situations (when you think it’s a 5-minute drive, it’s probably 10–15), but I would have to side more with Parkinson’s Law:
Work shrinks and expands so as to fill the time allotted to it. In other words, it can take 1hr 15mins or it can take 30mins if you so allot your time in that way.
The next time that you have a long task to perform (content creation, writing, cleaning, etc.) try setting a timer significantly shorter than the amount of time it usually takes you.
It may just work.
II. The hardest part is starting.
This goes back it all being in your head. This is what Steven Pressfield calls The Resistance. An intangible force (though sometimes it does feel physical) that pulls and distracts and tries to steal you from the important work that you’re made to do.
Starting is 80% of the battle. Once you start, you have moment. Don’t let the streak end and you’ll be fine. That’s all you have to do.
Don’t let the streak end.
III. A little bit a day makes life easy (1% a Day = Magic)
Start with $0.01 and double it every day for 31-Days. The result is just shy of $11,000,000.
You will notice that as of the 28th day, the dollar amount has just hit 1-Million. Give it 3 more days and you have 10x’ed. A mere 3 more days of patience is 10x the results. Wow.
Magic.
This has nothing to do with poop. It’s just a more compelling way of showing the benefits of doing a little every day. It compounds.
Thankfully dog poop doesn’t.
My backyard is clean again and now I have a new article.
Thanks dogs.
