(Guest post at Bitch Ph.D..)
This guest-blogging thing is killing me. No Nym makes it look easy, spending the rest of the week cooking up posts so he can spoil us on Tuesday. But dammit, I have two other blogs to maintain (my low-key original blog, which I encourage you to visit if you have anti-squirrel suggestions because one of those gnarly varmints chewed through my screen door to steal my wheat bread, and my crossword blog—yeah, that's right, I'm a crossword geek. Wanna make something of it?), and here it is, mid-morning on my assigned day, and I haven't got anything drafted.
So the natural topic is procrastination. I am a procrastinator. I always have been. Hell, a few years ago I came across one of my report cards from first grade, and the teacher said something about my not always finishing my assignments. I was certainly capable of doing so, but apparently I've just been a procrastinator since my early years. Here's a sample of what I've been procrastinating on lately:
• Editing manuscripts.
• Writing a book.
• Ordering a new toilet.
• Taking the car for an oil change.
• Paying some bills.
• Purging unloved clothes from my wardrobe and donating them to the Brown Elephant.
• Clearing up a crapload of clutter and papers.
• Reading a zillion books.
• Running errands.
• Sending thank-you notes.
• Sending out photos of my kid, family, and friends.
• Returning a Netflix movie.
• Doing laundry, sorting clean laundry, and the worst part—putting everything away.
• Cooking frozen vegetables before they shrivel up in the freezer.
• Writing up condo meeting minutes.
This is just a sampling of what's on my mental to-do list but sits undone. We've been in need of a new toilet for a year now, and all I have to do is go to a store (or just call them), ask them to order this or that model number, and hire a plumber to install it. A year! Objectively, my daily schedule is incredibly cushy and I have ample time to accomplish all these things and more, but I'm far too busy procrastinating to be productive.
It's confession time: What's are you procrastinating on, and why don't you just do it already? Do you have an explanation? Because I don't have a good way to rationalize my own procrastination, and I could use some excuses.
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8 comments:
I'm supposed to teach a class later today. The lesson plan is still in tatters, as is my poor, nervously pooping asshole. I should be prepping (and prep H-ing) but instead, I am surfing the internets and commenting on blogs. No one's gonna write ME a damn Mr. Holland's Opus, I can tell you that right now.
My book, my syllabii, painting the big room downstairs, a waaay overdue book review - and tha's just to start.
I'm a freelance editor too, and I don't know how to stop procrastinating either. At least when it's a boring project I have a reasonable excuse, but when it's something I'm happy to have on my plate, I have no idea why I don't knuckle down. Maybe it's because blogs are like crack for information junkies.
Yes, I began procrastinating at an early age too. "She has such potential but she is such a day-dreamer." Bah!
I blame my habits on undiagnosed ADD or else just plain old-fashioned laziness. Today I am procrastinating paying bills, entering expenditures into the monthly budget, calling the dentist for appointments for dental work, yelling at the cable company, putting away the laundry from yesterday, ironing (for about 3 months now), breakfast dishes, the chair refinishing project I blogged about last week, dressing the loom for my fist project...getting dressed....you get the idea....
I'm procrastinating on writing a book too, and on article revisions I need to get out of the way first. Because I am a perfectionist, and it will never be good enough, and who wants to read what I have to say anyway?
And on a condolence note, which is inexcusable, but not unusual.
I didn't start procrastinating till college, when I got overwhelmed by everything.
I would like to tell you that I was once a procrastinator myself, until I began yo get myself into a lot of trouble for not getting a lot of things done. I realized that by forcing myself to do these list-of-things-to-do, I beagn to change and my lifestyle improved. I hope you also find the motivation to change.
Hey, another local! Good for you for helping out the Brown Elephant.
I'm procrastinating cleaning the house, even though my mother is coming out to visit on Friday afternoon. Also procrastinating grad school applications. I've had this comment window open for twenty minutes while I check something else, so I should probably stop putting this off.
I hate clothes shopping for myself, so. Yeah. Probably my biggest procrastination. I'm still thinking about, just thinking, mind you, about buying myself some new summer clothes.
Wait. Oh shite....
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