As I prepare last minute for a meeting coming up in an hour, I had a realization about why I put certain things off to last minute.

There are some things that will never feel done. Preparing for an interview or court hearing fit this category. Thus, if I start on them way ahead of time, I might just spend all the time preparing. But, if I push it off until a few hours ahead of time, then I have just set up a time control on my preparation.

It’s a really painful way to do things because I don’t actually love the feel of last minute. And what if something unexpected happens. However, it is interesting to recognize the why.

Perhaps with this knowledge I can adjust and set my own boundaries because I choose to set them rather than forcing myself to control the time spent.

There is a program called Monday Hour One that advocates scheduling every block of time and moving on no matter what after your allotted time. I’m not ready to make that commitment, but might move a step closer to controlling time on that which is easy to control (such as preparation that could go on for forever).