Monday, January 16, 2017

Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

Today I've been tasked to write about one of my struggles. Since today is a holiday and I sent a few extra hours in bed, I think the appropriate one to talk about would be procrastination.

Ironically, I almost wrote this entry yesterday. And then I decided to put it off.

I don't know why I struggle with it so much. I think part of it is genetic. I know that my parents procrastinate (sorry, mom and dad.) But most of it is on me. Sometimes it's just because I like being comfortable. Say I need to do the dishes. I might plan to do that after breakfast. So I settle into the living room with my coffee and my laptop, catching up on the news, and then the coffee is gone and the news has been read, and I'm not ready to do dishes. Because that's not fun and I'm comfy and I don't want to get up. And I keep finding things to do that do not involve the dishes. And then it's lunch time.

At least that sort of makes sense, though. It makes sense to not want to to do a chore, especially one that is time consuming and a little gross (looking at you, smushy food particles) and honestly, sometimes it hurts my back. But then there are other, stupid little things that I put off and put off and put off for no reason known to myself. Addressing an envelope to put out in the mail. Or filing my kids' letters. I have a HUGE pile of letters to put away. And I have been *thinking* about it for weeks. I even took my file box over to my mom's last week when I went over there for lunch, planning to do it then (or ask her to do it for me, because I have a mental block against it for some reason.) But then it was raining and I didn't want to bring them out of the car! Now here I am, writing a blog post that I put off for 24 hours, because......I was going to file those letters, and I'm putting it off. Again. Good grief.

Every year I hope to be a little more intentional, and I think in some ways it works out. I don't waste as much time as I used to, but I still waste a lot, or put my priorities in a weird order for stupid reasons. I'm not sure that this is one bad habit I'm ever going to completely break. It seems to be part of my DNA.

So PLEASE tell me that you have some weird habit that you struggle with. Something so embarrassingly simple. Like putting off simple tasks because you've developed an irrational aversion to them over time.

1 comment:

  1. I might have the opposite problem.... in fact, I often try to get stuff done so quickly that the guidelines change after I finish. That's happened a lot...... so procrastinating might not always be such a bad thing.......

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