Two little words ...

Like Maggie, my 'toss-out' is:

I should.

"I should log on and do that."

"I should pay more attention to {this or that}."

"I should try to get home and visit Mom, it's been a while."

What I need to do is substitute: "I want" and then really stop and think, "do I want to do that or do I just think it's necessary?"

At times we do need to do "Should" things. But at other times they're habit or have little value or aren't really what we want to do. I need to monitor that little internal voice that says, "You should have achieved {this} by now" or "You should do {that} kind of promo, that really works" even if another little voice is whispering "No, not so."

Pay attention to all those little voices. One of them may be the Should Voice, and that one needs to be silenced now and again.

Hmm. I sound a bit crazy, don't I, with all these little voices? But hey, I'm a writer ... I do hear voices now and again.