procrastination

I am not much of a put-it-off-until-tomorrow person. But I am deep in the slumps of procrastination right now. There’s something that I don’t want to do. I want that thing to be DONE, but I don’t want to take the time to DO it. Hence, dawdling. As a newbie at procrastination, I have a few delaying strategies that I’ve been employing recently.

My first strategy is reading something. I love to read and would prefer to do that more than any other waking activity. I can read for more hours in a row than I can do anything else that I enjoy. Reading is relaxing and is a sure-fire way for me to avoid any other endeavor. As a bonus, it also occupies my mind, so I can effectively ignore the thing I don’t want to do. Lots of amusement, no fatigue, zero cost. Since I’m already an avid reader as a hobby, it’s natural that it would be my go-to procrastination strategy.

My second strategy is eating something. Sometimes that requires cooking something and then eating it. Sometimes it just involves walking to the kitchen and having a piece of fruit or enjoying a spoonful of almond butter. This procrastination strategy has more severe consequences than the reading strategy. If I read too much, the major drawback is that my eyes get tired. However, if I eat too much, the big downside is that I won’t be able to fit into my clothes. So the eating strategy must be utilized very cautiously, to avoid the unwanted results. Since eating doesn’t require much mental energy, it doesn’t allow me to ignore the thing I don’t want to do, thus resulting in me feeling guilty for overeating in addition to guilty for not doing the thing I don’t want to do. Not good.

My third strategy is cleaning. Yes, so help me god, cleaning. This is a wholesome activity and it soothes my inner nerd’s requirements for order and neatness. I have reached new heights of procrastination by using cleaning activities to delay the thing that I don’t want to do. There has been a huge amount of cleaning recently -  sorting/eliminating possessions while getting ready to sell the loft. Then there were big give-aways to specific people I thought might like some of our unwanted belongings. Then there was a huge binge of Freecyling to give away all the remaining items. Then there was vacuuming to catch the dust that had been caused by the sorting and the give-away activities. Lastly I washed the floors – every last square foot of them. I’m rather satisfied with the tidiness, but it doesn’t get me any closer to completion on the thing I’m avoiding.

The thing that I don’t want to do still is not done. I’m running out of procrastination strategies. Oh wait, I could take a nap!