How to Stop Making Excuses So You Can Get Things Done

Looking to get things done so you can stop beating about the bush in your professional and personal lives?

Are you looking for productivity tips to help you stop making excuses so you can get to work?

There’s something you’ve been working on for the past few weeks or months.

It’s been dragging on for what seems to be an eternity.

You’d like to finish things up, but you always come up with convenient and/or handy excuse.

You’re tired. It’s too late. You don’t have enough information.

Of course, you can keep making excuses until the cows come home.

But wouldn’t you rather get that troublesome item completed/finished/dealt with once and for all?

In this post, you’ll find a few tips to help you put an end to those pesky excuses and get things done.

Create a positive out of a negative.

Do you tend to focus on negative or self-defeating excuses?

These might be phrases like, “I don’t know where to start,” or “I can’t do this.”

Instead of harboring on that negativity, turn things around in a positive light to help motivate and guide you forward.

All it takes is a little change of heart.

You can turn the seemingly impossible into an accomplished, positive statement, and eventual fact.

For example, you can turn the above phrases into, “I do know where to start,” and “I can do this.”

Even if you feel a bit unsteady, simply talking about the positive side of things can put you in a different frame of mind.

You can get to a better place than where you are currently.

Think positively and doors will open for you. You can do it!

Convert your excuses into physical action.

Alas, making excuse after excuse doesn’t actively get things done.

Tired of fueling a seemingly endless cycle of mental effort and energy when you head down the road of ifs, ands or buts?

Give your thoughts a specific destination or place to go: outwards.

The next time you come up with an excuse, immediately take some sort of physical action towards your goal.

You could read, write, or pick something up.

You can move items from one place to another, make a list, do some research, or call a friend.

The idea is just to get moving and turn your mental energy into physical and actionable fuel.

Make a list of 10,000 excuses.

Feel like making a lot of excuses? No problem, we’ll just fight fire with fire.

It’s time to make a monster list of excuses. Start with one excuse and then work your way through 9,999 more. 

These excuses have to be really good ones though, no repeats, and no too-similar topics.

And no excusing yourself from the creation of the excuse list…

Okay, I really don’t suggest you follow this somewhat silly exercise.

But in all seriousness, it just goes to show how much time it would take you to sit down and write out 10,000 excuses.

By conservative estimates, this would probably take several hours, give or take a few days.

And in that time, you could complete and finally be done with whatever it is you’re trying to finish.

So, which path will you choose?

The one that makes you create a list of 10,000 excuses?

Or a path that puts you on your feet so you can get things done?

How about you? What excuses are you going to bypass so you can get things done? Join in the conversation and leave a comment below!

5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook Mockup
About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

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