I’ve been reading a book by John Maxwell called, Becoming a person of influence. The first chapter is on the importance of integrity. And one of the points in the chapter was that being reliable was an important aspect of integrity. And that’s something I’ve always worked towards. Having people count on me and know that I will do what I said I would, is really important to me.

But the book had an interesting quote that really struck me. It went like this, “Each day, do what you should do before what you want to do.” That is don’t procrastinate on your responsibilities. Finish what you need to do before playing.

Now being a person who cares a lot about accomplishing my responsibilities, I do put a lot of effort into making sure that I do things on time. If I told someone I was going to do something by a certain time or date, I do my best to have it done. But I have to say that procrastination is a serious problem with me. If I think I can put off working on something I don’t want to work on, I will. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still get it done on time, but I will wait until the last minute to do it.

And until reading that chapter, I never connected that tendency to procrastinate with integrity. But it really does fit. How can I be honest with myself about my responsibilities when I know I’m not working on them and should be? I’m only putting them off because I know I can get away with it. I know that no one will know that I didn’t work on the job until the last minute.

So my conclusion is that I’m going to put a lot more effort into finishing my responsibilities before the last minute. I’m going to try to not put things off that I know I can get away with doing just before they are required. I’m going to work on them when I should be.