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11 July, 2007

Procrastination


There's an old saying that goes "Never do today what can be done tomorrow" or something like that. It's a Procrastinator's motto. I guess I've always been a procrastinator. At high school I would always finish my coursework or homework the night before class, sometimes even the day of class or in my lunch break, feeding off that last-minute-rush feel. I would get good grades and then be left with the thought "What if I actually tried to finish my work early? Could I have gotten a better grade?" But by the time the next piece of homework was due I'd forgotten this. I had even tried finishing starting my work earlier and I felt satisfied and looked at myself smugly every time I remembered it. This was fine except in my head I kept saying "I STARTED the work so don't worry about it" and then found myself swept up in that last minute rush again.

Jerry Seinfeld in one of his stand-up moments on Seinfeld talked about "Evening Jerry" and "Morning Jerry" which I fully understand and had thought about myself. This phenomenon takes place at about 11pm and you think to yourself "Shall I take out the garbage/unload the dishwasher/send those emails now...or shall I let "Morning Allclick" handle it and set the alarm early?" Needless to say "Morning Allclick" constantly complains about "Evening Allclick".

I'd like to think that I am turning over a new leaf. I am trying to do today instead of putting off till tomorrow. Results so far: Less procrastination has lead to a little less stress, but not a decrease in the amount of things I have to do.
Now, what else can I blog about before I do some work...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~William James

I always try to remember how great it feels to complete a task ... especially an unpleasant one and it encourages me to finish it sooner!

Good luck with the reforming ;-)