To Procrastinate or Not to Procrastinate…Part 1
When I was about six or seven years old, my mother taught me how to spell “procrastinate.” Why?
Well, apparently I began at that early age to practice how to do it—procrastinate—and continued to practice all through elementary school, high school, and right through college, although I did make rare attempts to stop, and practice planning and completing ahead of time instead.
Not that I didn’t like school and schoolwork, you understand. I loved school. In fact, I was one of those annoying kids that was upset when school was closed due to weather.
I just always found so many other things to do instead that were either easier to do or more entertaining or were more important, so that the school assignment or paper fell further and further down on my list of things to do until it was due the next day and suddenly—can you beat that?—it shot to the top of the list.
Unfortunately, at that young age, even though I was very good at procrastinating—I did not realize that procrastinating is not viewed as one of the seven habits of highly effective people. But, since my mother had anchored that word in my brain by making me learn how to spell it with all its 13 (ah, unlucky number of) letters, I at least was aware when I was doing it.
The thing is, when my mother taught me how to spell it she also taught me this was not a good thing to do. It could get me in trouble. As a child, that usually meant an unhappy adult was involved.
And I could see her point because after all, staying up until 4 in the morning to finish a term paper while imbibing huge amounts of caffeine was not fun after the first two or three times, and shipping out scarves to a shop after the Christmas rush does not make for a happy customer.
Still, procrastination has its benefits as well as its drawbacks. Really.
In the finest tradition of Scarlett O’Hara, some things should be put off until tomorrow. And with good reason. In my mind, or yours, some tasks can seem unimportant and requiring just too much effort. For instance…
Cleaning the oven. I am a champion at putting that one off. I can procrastinate on that until something inside ignites or we buy a new one, whichever comes first. And why not? After all, the food I am cooking doesn’t have to touch the bottom, top, or sides of the oven, and generally, it doesn’t even have to touch the racks, so unless what I am baking bubbles up and over its container and starts to smoke and thereby set off the smoke alarm, there is simply no good reason to clean the oven. I like that slightly charcoal patina it builds up. And just think about how much time and energy I save by NOT cleaning the oven…Time I can spend writing or weaving or reading, or doing a whole host of more important or fun things instead!
So, one good reason to procrastinate: you have better things to do. And, if you put off doing it long enough, the project, assignment, or task will just disappear.
Or go up in flames!