The Reason That Sounds Good

I’ll start Monday, when things calm down. I’m too tired to do it properly, so there’s no point. I need to look into it a bit more first. None of these sound like excuses. They sound sensible, and that’s exactly why they work.

Good excuses borrow the language of good reasons

A weak excuse is easy to ignore. The ones that actually stop you are the ones that could be true. Sometimes you really are too tired. Sometimes Monday really is better. The problem is that the same sentence covers both the real reason and the way out, and from the inside they feel identical.

There’s a simple test. A real reason changes the plan: you rest, then you do it tomorrow at a set time. An excuse just removes the plan, and leaves “later” where a time should be. That’s how the thing you keep putting off stays put off for months.

Every excuse you accept also chips at something quieter: your trust that when you tell yourself something, it happens.

The one-line check

The next time you hear yourself give a reason not to do something, finish this sentence: so instead, I will do it at a named time. If you can name the time, it’s a reason, so write it down and keep it. If you can’t, it’s an excuse, and you do five minutes of the task right now. You don’t need to argue with the excuse, just make it name a time.

That’s enough for today.