Letting Yourself Off the Hook
The Lines You Use Sound Reasonable
By Marlene Wagner
Most of us have heard the phrase “letting yourself off the hook.” What does it mean to let yourself off the hook, and what does it look like?
I started thinking of the number of ways we let ourselves off the hook and the effects of doing so.
The Lines You Use to Let Yourself Off the Hook
A daily to-do list is a promise to yourself to complete some tasks in a given period of time.
Unfinished tasks almost never end with a decision to quit. It ends with a sentence.
You tell yourself something that sounds perfectly sensible, and the task slides to a later day or time. Nothing about the moment feels like you’re giving up.
Here we will look at the most common sentences used that sound reasonable and let you off the hook.
You will probably recognize a few as your own, and that recognition is the useful part. A line you can name is much harder to fall for.
It’s Too Small to Matter
This line uses the task against itself. A small thing is easy to do, but it’s just as easy to drop.
Dropping it leaves no visible mark on the day. When you hear it, turn it around.
If the task really is that small, it will cost you almost nothing to finish it in the next ten minutes.
I’ll Do It When I Have More Energy
This line hands the job to a later version of you imagined as rested and motivated.
That person rarely shows up, because later usually arrives with the same tiredness and one more thing on the list.
Ask what part of the task your current energy can cover, even if it’s only the first step, and do that part now. Chances are good you’ll complete the task.
First, I Just Need To…
This line slides a different task in front of the one you promised yourself.
It works because the substitute is useful, so clearing your inbox or tidying the desk feels like progress and never registers as a skip.
Ask whether you need to complete the other task before you can do the promised one. If not, do the promised task first, then the other one.
I Want to Do It Properly
This line turns high standards into a reason to wait. You hold out for a clear afternoon, the right mood, or enough time to do the whole job well.
Those conditions keep failing to arrive.
Permit yourself to do a rough version today, since a messy form that is filled in beats a perfect one that is still untouched.
Something Came Up
This line treats an interruption as a cancellation. Something real did come up, which is what makes it so convincing.
But an interruption only changes when you do the thing and have no say over it.
Before you turn to whatever arrived, pick a new time later the same day and say it out loud. You move the promise instead of dropping it.
I’ve Earned a Break
This line sets rest and the promise against each other, as if you can only have one of them.
You may well need the break, but a fifteen-minute task was never the thing standing between you and it.
Keep the break and change the order. Do the small thing first, then take your rest with nothing left hanging over you.
One More Day Won’t Hurt
This line is true every single time you use it, which is why it’s so hard to catch. One day never hurts.
But the line only ever asks about today and never adds up the days already spent.
When you hear it, count how long the thing has been waiting and say the number out loud before you decide anything.
That’s Close Enough
This line gives full credit for partial work. You opened the form, found the phone number, or thought the whole thing through.
The effort feels enough like having done it that you let the rest go.
Ask whether you could tell someone the thing is done with no explanation attached. If you can’t, finish the last part now.
Nobody Will Know Either Way
This line counts everyone except the one person who will know, and that is you. It’s correct about other people since nobody is waiting on a private promise.
And that’s what makes it the easiest line to accept. Answer it with three words. I will know and treat that as reason enough to get up and do the thing.
Conclusion
Every one of these lines is reasonable on its own, and that’s why they work. A promise to yourself is rarely broken by a poor excuse.
A sensible sentence breaks it so that nobody stops to question. Learn to recognize yours, and it loses most of its pull.
Reading the list is the easy part. Listen for your line the next time a small task starts to slide.
Most people do not use all of those listed here. They have one or two favorites that they reach for on nearly everything.
The unreturned phone call to the form in the drawer. Read back through the list and pick the one that sounds most like you.
Please share my content with anyone you think would be interested in or benefit from this information.
Contact me if you or someone you know is interested in one-on-one coaching.
Until next time, starting today, make yourself a priority and begin living your best life.
But before we go, always remember to
Be true to your magnificent self,
Coach Marlene
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Email: parkavenueunlimited@midco.net
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