To me, procrastination is the innate art-form of
delaying what I should do, must do, have to do and absolutely cannot discard as
never-to-be-done; sounds familiar? If you need a bit of time to come up with an
answer, you are so much on track, that it’s not even funny – though it is. And
if you incoherently thought: manana
(Spanish for tomorrow), you are one
of us…
Let’s start by looking at the clinical form of
procrastination. Just so you know, I started writing this article a few days
after I really should have started. Right now it’s actually the very morning of
the day I need to publish a new post. But then I comfort myself by
acknowledging that I do work much better under pressure, which is only somewhat
true and something I really do not prefer to do…
Procrastination: Some of the explanation says that
we tend to solve lesser issues first, and the more stressful and difficult ones
are procrastinated into the future, near or far. It says that we prefer to deal
with problem-solving this way, though it brings along anxieties and stress – but
we do it anyway; go figure.
I’m more of the everyday type procrastinator. I can
procrastinate the most innate issues and tasks, but nothing mind-blowing. In
retrospect, for the most just crap and stupid stuff – and then I wonder why,
again and again. At times I’m even procrastinating about deciding to
procrastinate – a tad pathetic, if you ask me.
Perhaps you go through some of the same emotions I
do. As an example: I’m retired and as my wife is not the same age as I am, she
is still out there in the real world working. So as I retired, I wanted to grab
more of a helping share, and amongst that house-cleaning, shopping, cooking,
etc. Yes, I’m a team-player.
There are certain things I am not overly eager to
do, though sometimes whatever it is, it ends up actually being fun – really.
House-cleaning is one of the duties I procrastinate again and again. Yes I know,
nothing Earth-shattering. But the stupidity of it is that I go through all this
delaying, procrastinating, blah blah blah and as I know I have to clean the
house at some point, why don’t I just go ahead and do it. You see, as I’m sure
you experience yourself – many times, we waste so much time of silly agony,
excuses to one-self and the list can be so long, that “in-the-meantime” during
all this pathetic negotiation with one-self, we could have cleaned the house
several times. I mean, how stupid is that?
I’m one of these rare over-organizers, pretty much
everything I do daily is noted in the calendar that originates on my computer
and loads up and down to iPhone, lap-top and tablet (Kindle, in this case). So
what I’m supposed to do, from the daily to-do-list, to reminders of
appointments, birthdays and other stuff, etc. is always right in front of me;
the furthest away would be my pocket.
I am not going to tell you the details of my
planning schedule, as you will immediately use the nasty term: anal; referring to the emotion, and not
anything bodily, though it sounds like it – and is true about some people (not
me, of course; adorable is more who
I am)…
So every morning I follow a concentrated routine,
from the simple matters of simple stuff, through a bit more sophisticated things.
The routine stuff gets boring at times (often), but is essential for my life to
be in as perfect order, emotionally and functionality-wise as possible. I
rarely miss a beat, and am the dude to go to for information about our days,
weeks and months. I know my wife does that ‘rolling-eye’ bit at times, but I do
not blink, as I feel I have to do it this way; this is the way I like it – and it
is effective.
As I am anal about deleting tasks and things as I do
them, I am also good at doing them as I must; it’s kind of an added pressure,
but in a pleasant way, as in task done,
and off to the next we go. So procrastination is very rare concerning the daily
stuff, but can show its nasty face concerning some of the bigger issues – depending
on the level of how much I like or hate doing those things.
And one of them is, that the dog needs to be washed
the first, every month. The thing is that it’s not a big deal – it really isn’t.
Sure the dog is not in a party mood when we ask her to jump into the tub, tail
solidly tugged between hind-legs, and if I had a tail, that’s where it would be
as well. But she gets washed, rinsed and after 10 minutes with the conditioner,
she’s all done, shaking water off everywhere. When she has received a goodie,
she is as happy as I am (and I don’t even get a goodie).
Procrastination is delaying; why we need a big word
to cover that, I don’t know. But we are surrounded by big words for simple
things. Most of us cannot even spell procrastination on the first try, but we do
know what it means. So since we know what it means and since we also know how
we feel doing that damn procrastination thing (only bad and guilty), why not
try to eliminate some of our delays. Let’s face the music and get it done. We
know it should and must be done at some point, so why not now? It makes us feel
so much better, it really does. And I strongly believe that feeling better is
better than feeling bad and guilty.
I feel much better now, as this post is ready to be
released; just a few more things, then comes that big sigh and the adorable smirk
– job done (but why didn’t I write this a few days ago? I might never find out
the real reason, but I will try harder next time, I promise – procrastination at
its best)…
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