Procrastination...
So I've always been a procrastinator. All of you who knew me in college know this very well! Pushing the deadlines on papers, burning the candle at both ends to get everything done on time, camping out at the library during the last few weeks of school working on those big papers that we had all semester to work on...Well, in some ways, I guess I thought that after college my procrastination would go away, because I don't have papers and tests and deadlines any more. But for all of you procrastinators out there, you know that the opposite is, in fact, true - when there are no deadlines, procrastination gets WORSE! So I make deadlines for myself. And then, knowing that there are no consequences if I break my self-imposed deadlines, I push them back a little farther. Then I realize that I need to start giving myself consequences, or implementing a reward system, otherwise my motivation would be ZERO! For example, I tell myself, "Becca, you can't watch those new episodes of Gilmore Girls that just arrived from Netflix until you wash all the dishes in the sink and clean out Shelby's cage." The problem comes when I decide that I can get my reward now for doing the work later. For example, I could instead tell myself, "Becca, your reward for washing dishes and cleaning Shelby's cage is Gilmore Girls. But it's Friday night and you're tired, and you know that you're going to do those things tomorrow, so you can just watch Gilmore Girls tonight instead." Danger, Will Robinson! :) So the moral of the story is that it's harder than I thought to be self-motivated. But it feels so good when I actually do it right, in the right order, with the task first and the reward later! So that makes it all worth it. Except I'm still a procrastinator. For example, here is my list of...
Things to do this weekend:
1. Babysit for Jadyn Mucher tonight.
2. Bake bread tomorrow morning.
3. Finally finish and mail that letter to Rachel...that I started forever and a day ago...
4. Finally mail that card to Michelle...
5. Finally clean my room, that is currently submerged in piles of clothing (I don't think I've put anything in a drawer in 2 loads of laundry - it just goes from the clean laundry basket to my body to the dirty laundry basket, or the pile of I've-worn-this-once-but-it-doesn't-need-to-be-washed-yet pile. For all of you who don't have such a pile, you don't know what you're missing. It saves so much laundry-doing!) :)
6. Finally finish reading The Catcher in the Rye, which I had given up during my brief yearly foray back into the world of Narnia.
7. Finally go for a wintry walk near my house, to discover where all the snow-covered country roads actually lead.
8. Bake lots of goodies so that I have "planned-overs" in my fridge this week for Amy, Katrina, and myself to munch on.
9. Pray.
10. Replace the lightbulb in my other headlight, that is now burnt out like the other one was a few months ago, except this one isn't as easy to replace because the angles to get to it are all funny.
11. Work on what I'll be saying when I speak in youth group on Wednesday, about what drives your life.
12. Sleep...lots and lots of sleep... :)
3 comments:
Becca,
I wish you hadn't gotten so much of this trait from me.
There is more joy and less guilt in discipline with grace.
My head knows that, but I still battle.
Hugs to you. Have a great weekend.
Enjoy the snow. We are in going to Uberlandia, Minas Gerais for Sat - Mon.
Aunt Cindy comes Tues. YAY!
Love,
Mamae
hey bexx
busy weekend! is amy back? can't go to DC after all, so paul and i might be back before you know it!
can we stay with you? :) ha ha. we'll see. i'll give you a call once we're back in town.
haha! Can I just say... yay! for procrastinators!... because I am one. I used to not be. I was that oh-so-annoying student in jr. high and high school that got all my homework assignments and research papers done ahead of time because I hated the pressure of a deadline. I can only remember a few times where I might have pushed the line. And then came college... and I was pretty good at first... But then I got progressively worse. Culminating in a last semester of complete procrastination (though miraculously, I did get everything done). And now there's life after college and no one to hold me accountable for keeping "my side of the room clean" (kind of thing - or at least a corner clean... my desk however is another story. fair game to leave a mess), among other things. Not that I've ever had it so messy that I've gotten complaints. I'm just more aware of where I throw my stuff around, or whether or not whatever it is goes back to where it should be because I don't want to be a pain - one of those inconsiderate room/housemates. But then if you AND your room/housemates are procrastinating and together you finally decide to clean up, it's so much more fun cleaning with other people than doing it by yourself.
And so, the moral of the story is... procrastination is much more fun when you can do it with your room/housemates. grins
On a more serious note, it's also a lot easier to procrastinate in keeping up on matters that are really important to me. I've no one to talk to about them... that's not true. It's HARDER to talk about them when someone is not sitting right there with me, sharing whatever it is over food or coffee or tea or chai. And so the moral of THAT story is: I CAN'T WAIT TIL MAY!!! grins
I love you Becca!!!
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