10/26/2014

I often say I could procrastinate for Australia. so accomplished am I at this under-rated skill. If there were state selections I’d definitely final.

To me procrastination isn’t putting stuff off forever or never doing it, but rather putting it off until it wakes you in the night, distracts you from other things and gives you a cold sweat at the mere thought of it, whatever it is.

This I am amazing at this.

The things I procrastinate about fall neatly into two categories – things that scare me and things that bore me.

I think we all have things in that second category. Mine includes folding laundry, sorting mail, anything tax related and anything involving the more technical aspects of the computers (as this translates to my writing anything on Amazon or Createspace). It makes that we don’t relish doing these jobs but like them or not they don’t go away.

The first category – the scary stuff – also makes sense but putting it off usually doesn’t minimise the fear. My experience of doing this for MY ENTIRE LIFE is that the fear grows bigger, it’s shadow looms larger and it’s weight grows heavier.

Often the things I’m scared of are new things.

The truth is it usually takes longer to master something new so one really should take all the available time not leave it until there’s simply not enough but logic and fear have never been logical companions. Sometimes the new things are even opportunities and then you have to add in that little voice that asks “do you deserve this opportunity?”

Procrastinator and self-sabotage – what a charming picture I paint.

My to-do list this week is alarmingly long because of the above but today I have scratched my big black pen through quite a few line items. That’s terrific but it leaves me asking as it does every time – ‘when will you learn?’ My guess is never.

(FYI -I don’t consider flaking out and not completing tasks procrastination. I do eventually get everything done. I don’t miss deadlines that affect other people because at my core I’m embarrassingly polite and it’s rude to mess other people around.)

So after that we need a perky tune for a Monday. This song is one of my current favourites. Yes it is about a breakup but it is also about a girl going after what she wants and I like that a lot.