So Long Procrasination, Hello Productivity (I Hope)


Procrastination. It’s a beautiful word to me. After all, I’m actually pretty good at it. I recently had an assignment due, whereby I had to write an essay on the merits of social media for museums. I had completed all the set readings for the essay, conducted my research, written up an essay plan…and yet I couldn’t bring myself to write the essay itself. Anything and everything else seemed like a better way to spend my time. I spent time gardening, reading, baking, cleaning, playing video games… I kept telling myself, “Oh, it’s okay, you have the whole of next weekend to complete it. She’ll be right, mate!”

The problem was everything was not alright. The Friday before my essay was due saw me completely sidelined by a sinus infection. I couldn’t even contemplate opening my eyes for more than 30 seconds, let alone staring at a computer screen for hours at a time. After two days of complete and total incapacitation, I had to spend my Sunday evening tapping away on my laptop, hoping against all hope that what I was writing would make sense. Thankfully I had researched the topic fairly heavily over the weeks, and so I didn’t have to waste time looking for useful resources. But still, I regret all those hours I spent procrastinating. I wasted those hours I spent doing the hard slog because I didn’t have the mettle to force myself to complete a task which I found tedious.

I have learnt a valuable lesson through this sinus infection. I have always been told: “Do not put off until tomorrow that which you can do today.” But really, it should read: “Do today that which you may not be capable of doing tomorrow.”

So, please, if you see me on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, or curled up on the couch with a good book when you know I should be completing an assignment, please inform me that I need to pull my proverbial finger out of my proverbial butt and get going with the work I need to do. 

Procrastination, I love you. You have given me hours’ worth of entertainment. But now, I am afraid, it is time for us to part ways.

Comments

  1. Hey, I thought I was the Queen of procrastination? Looks like I have a rival at court. LOL! I know exactly what you mean. I procrastinate on everything, but I need to stop. My writing is going nowhere when I do it. I like what you said about doing today what we might not be capable of doing tomorrow. I need to adopt that as my motto. If you have any anti-procrastination tips, let me know. =O)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Michelle, I'm glad I'm not alone! My next blog post is going to be about anti-procrastination techniques that I have tried. Oddly enough I haven't managed to get around to writing it yet though :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts