I was straightening up my office at work Friday and I found a to-do list from 2003 and there were still a couple of things on there I hadn't gotten around to. I will be the first to admit procrastination is one of my top-ten flaws. I was amused to find "make and hang bathroom curtain" on the list and excited that I could finally check those off because I'd done it last weekend especially for the party. (Nothing like having company over to get my backside in gear.)
It sounds like I don't ever do anything but that's not true! I do what I like to call constructive procrastination--that is, I accomplish other things in order to avoid doing something else. For example, I will go to the mall to buy a gift instead of cleaning out a drawer, or clean out a drawer instead of hemming pants, or writing in my blog instead of working on my novel. Eventually all of the things get done...the operative word here being "eventually."
When I really sit down and analyze why I put off doing something, there's a simple explanation. Sewing the curtain, for example, only took about 15 minutes, but the sewing machine is old and cumbersome to set up and it's difficult to thread and while I'm an excellent seamstress...I suck at measuring and cutting a straight line...mainly because I have a hard time finding the tape measurer and the scissors. By the time I go through all that in my mind I'm tired...and stressed out. I guess I need to sit down and really analyze everything I put off...maybe someday I will.
Anyway, the curtain looks great...see?
3 comments:
Karyn! "Constructive procrastination" a flaw? I think not!
Consider it a character trait. It has many excellent uses.
Occasionally Greg, in a moment of misguided motivation (alliteration!), asks me to put together an HR plan that we can execute when (if!) each one of three different prospective buyers manages to acquire our plant.
Greg is an engineer, and thus a "planning freak." Since I know that the odds are against us EVER using any of those plans, I simply procrastinate until it's clear that we don't need them.
Then, if asked, I assure him that all were ready to go, but have been discarded once the possible need for them passed.
If we ever DO need one, the real circumstances of the acquisition are NEVER what was planned, so the plan wold have to be re-done anyway.
(Please don't share this with Greg! I still need my job security.)
John
Well if that isn't the pot calling the kettle freaky...Mr. Matching Sweater Vacation Planning Freak!
You had a pool party and didn't invite me? Of all the cotton picking nerve and you just KNOW how good I look in a bikini. NOT. Enjoyed the pictures and made me look at my above-ground-algae-covered-monstrocity-in-the-backyard with even more disdain that yesterday. What's the trick to keeping it crystal clear? You gotta pool boy to do that stuff for you? Heh.
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