22 Excuses that I use to not Do Important Work

Here are a few of the excuses I tell myself in order to procrastinate:

1. They won’t let me
2. I am too young
3. I am too old
4. I am only one person
5. I don’t know enough
6. I am not a guru
7. This could be embarrassing
8. This will be embarrassing
9. This is too touchy-feely
10. I won’t get paid for this
11. This isn’t business stuff
12. I have to finish the things I have already started
13. Seth Godin has already said it better than I can
14. I’ll do it tomorrow/later/after this coffee
15. Who am I to think I know something special about this?
16. I’ve got plenty of time next week
17. I’ve got plenty of time this year
18. I’ll do it this summer
19. I’ll do it after the summer
20. I need to do a little bit more research
21. Who’s going to read this anyway?
22. [¡¡¡ insert your own excuse here 😉 !!!!]

That’s just 21…  I have many, many more.

What are your top excuses?  What do you do when you find yourself procrastinating?

Richard Hamming tells of how he would lose lunch companions because he would continually ask

• “What are the important problems of your field?”
• “What important problems are you working on?”
• “If what you are doing is not important, and if you don’t think it is going to lead to something important, why are you working on it?”

His speech You and Your Research is posted in full at Paul Graham’s blog.