Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – April 27, 2004
Procrastination
Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – April 27, 2004 – Not only am I The Queen of Rationalization, I am The Princess of Procrastination. Some mornings I have to decide which crown to plop on the old noggin, and both are tarnished from too much wear. I try not to be swayed by the bright perky people who say, “I just get right up in the morning and do all the tasks are on my “dislike list” first – then I can get on with my day and enjoy everything else.
“Bah Humbug”, I say. Just getting up is on my “dislike list” and I’m certainly not going to follow that, with yet another unpleasant task. I hardly start breathing before ten in the morning – can you imagine adding “take out the trash before noon” – that would set my therapy back by a year or two.
I’m not too bad when it comes to accomplishing things that need to be done, and they are usually finished before the deadline. But I sometimes put them off, and let the old stress metre zoom up beyond an acceptable level, before I get started. Time to ponder why it’s so darn easy to put things off. If I think about the tasks on my “To Do List” right now, they’re not difficult, just time consuming and annoying.
I need to pick up dog food for Augie. It takes half an hour and means I have to shlep a giant bag of food that weighs about a hundred pounds (okay forty pounds) out to my car and then down to the basement when I get back home. I don’t like doing this, so I put it off. Knowing I have to do this chore nags away at the back of my mind, especially when Augie only has four little bickies left. What I wouldn’t give to have a butler. If I’m ever rich I’m going to hire a butler, a personal assistant and while I’m at it – a cook!
I’ve already had a mini-rant about the vileness of grocery shopping. That being another of my pet procrastination peeves. I wait until I have Old Mother Hubbard cupboards before I finally take the much dreaded drive to the grocery store. It’s the same with preparing my income tax, paying monthly bills, preparing client presentations, going to my office to pick up my mail and doing my daily writing.
It’s 11:30 P.M. and I’m sitting here, tired and wanting to go to bed, but feeling as if I haven’t finished all that needs to be accomplished this day. A sure-fire guarantee to make me feel a tad tense. This warrants some serious consideration. There appears to be a pattern here. Can anyone else relate to this? Of course you can so just come clean.
Perhaps this is just a teeny-weeny character flaw (moi) – this habitually and intentionally putting things off that I don’t want to do. Maybe with enough determination I can wrestle this predisposition to the ground and flog it into submission. I’m never late unless I’m being conspired against by traffic, weather or forces unknown in this dimension. I deliver on all my commitments, but often with some anxiety thrown in for good measure.
If at all possible I keep the promises that I make. I guess it’s simply a matter of making choices and decisions. Now – I’m not procrastinating – but I’m going to dwell on this awhile and see if I can come up with a different way of looking at it – gosh – let’s see – is this a rationalization?
