Yes, indeed. I feel my putting-things-off skill set is pretty sharp but I think I can take it one step further. As soon as I can find a university that offers a master's program in procrastination, I intend to fill out the application. Maybe I'll do it later that night when the boys are in bed and the house is quiet. Or better yet the next morning when I'm well-rested. Of course, the weekend is always a good time to work on projects like that. I'll have to see what's on the calendar.
See what I'm getting at here?
I have always been a procrastinator and have always wished I wasn't. I'm a world-class list maker and am fairly organized, but struggle with motivation. I have short-term and long-term "To Do" lists with one of the items on the latter being "make a bucket list." As long as I have a notion of what I'm supposed to be doing, not doing it is somewhat more comfortable. I do love the feeling of crossing things off those lists, but it doesn't happen very often. I mean...ironing? No, thank you.
I remember starting major junior high projects the night before they were due. (Designing a house? Really? SO not interesting to someone who at that point was planning a career as a kept woman.) By the time I was in college this had devolved into getting up at 4 a.m. to write papers due at 10. There sat I at the typewriter, banging out whatever mostly coherent sentences popped into my brain. Rough drafts are for suckers. Getting excellent grades with this method was just positive reinforcement to watch "All My Children" rather than studying for that heinous Econ test.
Life is short. I get that. There are so many things I want to do: learn to play the cello, re-finish my kitchen cabinets, find opportunities to sing in public, work on my book, bring democracy to China, find out what's really going on with Donald Trump's "hair". But even when something is as important as losing this extra weight I have and getting healthy, it's really easy to find something - anything - else to occupy me. I'm looking at you, Facebook.
I attribute part of my issue with motivation to depression. It's something I've struggled with for the past several years and paired with my natural tendency to procrastinate it makes for a mighty obstacle. A recent switch in medication is giving me a little more energy and focus, but I know it's mostly up to me to make better choices about how I spend my time.
I admire people who have energy and motivation or at least fake it really well. If you are one of these people, please feel free to school me in these foreign concepts. I may not ever use one of your suggestions, but at least I can cross "ask friends about motivational techniques" off my list.
P.S. This post was written as a delay tactic. I'm already slacking off on working out and I know I need to get my butt into some unsightly workout gear and go do some sweating. And I will, right after I check my Facebook page.
1 comment:
I'm always amazed when we see behind the curtains at each other's unmade beds (is that sheets rumpled at the end or somewhere on the basement floor before the sewer pipe broke, unmade?) I feel like I'm reading my own thoughts except that I wouldn't bother writing them because nobody would honestly care what I had to say anyway.
AnyWAY...I would let you sign up for the procrastination degree program I'm authorized to offer ( monthly certificates suitable for framing that you still have not [fill in the blank]). I, however, lost all accreditation when I turned in my term paper Thurs, 3 AND A HALF days before my extension ended. Do I look like one of those together people from the outside? Sometimes I suspect I actually do fake it well, which is hard to believe when I know what's happening inside.
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