You're always a day away
Give me a project or an assignment with a deadline. For however long you have given me, I will ponder, I will consider, I will reflect. Then, the day before my deadline, I will acually summon my powers and do what you asked me to do. Generally, I will do it well.
All my life I have procrastinated. Years ago I recognized that in some cases, that procrastination is simply the way my brain works; what I referred to as procrastination was simply my mind working out a problem. When I was ready to put it into place, there my answer was--already thought out and more or less what I needed.
But that only works for some things. The other procrastination seems to be about avoidance, especially over things I don't like or don't want to face. Like when I knew I needed to hire a contactor to fix the dry rot in my house. I dillied and dallied and by the time I finally hired a guy, the whole side of the house needed to be replaced. No, really.
And marking. I find myself making all kinds of promises, setting myself deadlines and promising rewards, and yet, I simply DON'T DO IT. I know that this leads to stress and anxiety and is terribly unfair to my students, but my good intentions slip away when offered the opportunity to watch this or go to that.
You would think after nearly 50 years of life, I would be wiser.
All my life I have procrastinated. Years ago I recognized that in some cases, that procrastination is simply the way my brain works; what I referred to as procrastination was simply my mind working out a problem. When I was ready to put it into place, there my answer was--already thought out and more or less what I needed.
But that only works for some things. The other procrastination seems to be about avoidance, especially over things I don't like or don't want to face. Like when I knew I needed to hire a contactor to fix the dry rot in my house. I dillied and dallied and by the time I finally hired a guy, the whole side of the house needed to be replaced. No, really.
And marking. I find myself making all kinds of promises, setting myself deadlines and promising rewards, and yet, I simply DON'T DO IT. I know that this leads to stress and anxiety and is terribly unfair to my students, but my good intentions slip away when offered the opportunity to watch this or go to that.
You would think after nearly 50 years of life, I would be wiser.
posted by allison | 7:07 PM
6 Comments:
Epathetic ear here.
I am The Queen of Procrastination.
And, though 31 years of life has trained me to do certain things in a timely manner... it never comes naturally.
Hey! You can't be Queen! I am Queen. You can be Princess.
Or I can be Empress. Yeah, that works...
We think you are very wise. We find if we wait before doing something, sometimes we don't have to anyways.
OK Bye
Stompy
I could post all kinds of useful comments to this entry, but I... well, I guess I'll do it later or something. Hmm, is that my sock drawer needs cleaning?
You would think after nearly 50 years of life, I would be wiser.
Nuh uh! "Old enough to know better but young enough to do it anyway" [wink]
I procrastinate too. I've found if I do things (like pay credit cards) straight away, by the time the event comes round (the credit card bill arrives, or a birthday arrives), I forget I've paid it, or forget I've bought a card and written it, and buy another card [doh]
Um, oh yes. I know this one.
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