Quality and Innovation

(Image Credit: Doug Buckley of http://hyperactive.to)

I’m always more productive when I’m actively avoiding something I need to do, but don’t want to do. Yet.

That’s actually the state I’m in at this very moment. This morning, I have to put together a survey. Now, putting together an online survey is not a real thought-intensive process. You have to figure out what questions to ask… you have to drag and drop icons to make sure that your question types are represented… and then you click on the “Response 1” and “Response 2” text and type in what the real responses should be. I have a little more labor to undertake, since I have to double-click on a Dropbox folder and pull out a couple paragraphs of text that I need to include on the survey. But for some reason, I’m just resisting and resisting getting this super important task done – which is now two days late, and I’ll be extremely embarrassed if it’s three days late, because I confessed my sins of procrastination at a meeting yesterday afternoon and vowed to be faithful to my commitment on this, the third day…

And well, you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I’ve become ultra productive regarding everything else on my to-do list. I’ve prepared for two of my Monday classes. I’ve posted new resources to the online learning management system for my students. I’ve started reading a book I promised to review for a publisher. I’ve done two loads of laundry. And it’s not even 10 in the morning yet.

This is making me wonder whether I should always have an “avoider task” on my to-do list. It’s great fuel to push me to do the others.