“Always leave yourself an out,” Mike Plunkett used to tell me.

He taught me a lot, but this lesson resonates in everything I do. It’s invaluable for work, but it can also be catalyst for some pretty gnarly procrastination if applied at home.

If there’s work to be done to the house, let say, and after pulling up the floor there’s really not way to “back out” of the action except for re-installing new flooring. It’s unsettling at the least to know that once you start the job you’re committed to some kind of follow-through–especially if you have no idea what you’re doing.

I’ve got books like Getting Things Done and The Procrastinator’s Handbook to help me get over this kind of thing, but it’s slow going.