Water Cooler Musings: On Procrastination

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” This was so eloquently spoken by Don Marquis, and it rings true. There is just something so magical about being able to manipulate time for your own needs. “I will do it tomorrow.” This phrase is one of the truest phrases ever spoken by that army known as procrastinators because tomorrow is always a day away (right, orphan Annie?), where it rightly belongs. We can always keep putting things off, and never get to them if we don’t have a mind to do so. This was the topic around the water cooler this week.

“Every duty which is bidden to wait returns with seven fresh duties at its back.” Time waits for no one, and we admitted this. One scenario brought up was the laundry. You can sit and wait for it to do itself, but it never will, and you might be okay with that. Until time comes when you need clothes, and then you’re behind the eight ball. You can have a deadline at work, and when it comes time you have to get it done. Your boss will assign you something else, and now you’ve got two things you need to do. Or you ask for that extension on the term paper you had due, you get it, but then another is assigned so you’re writing two papers at the same time. Doing double the work isn’t a fun thing, but we keep putting things off.

“Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.” All of us have heard tales of braggarts who claim they can do any number of things “as quick as a whip,” and it all sounds otherworldly, because it is. These people don’t really exist, and bragging about how many things you can do at once is an admission that you didn’t do what you were supposed to do before this moment. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many things on your plate right now.

“If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.” We joked about all those people who waited until the last minute (April 15th at 11:59) to do their taxes, when they knew it was due on that day, and they probably had all the forms they needed well ahead of time. For some reason, though, people seem to let days creep up on them, particularly deadline days, and then they cram whatever they can at the last possible second. And we saw them too, drinking their endless cups of coffee, and their Red Bulls, and their energy shots. When they could have done what we did, and filed back in mid-February. No worries, and sweet dreams.

“Someday is not a day of the week.” We did admit that we use that word as if it were a day of the week sometime. We’ll do it someday. We’ll get to it someday. But someday is just as elusive as tomorrow. It never comes, and we’re left with a mountain of things we haven’t done.

We didn’t just leave it there, though. Just as with dieting, we made a plan to stop procrastinating, and we put it down in a list…

1. Make firm plans and tell as many people as possible.

2. Create a list, and make small checkpoints along the way.

3. Use the buddy system.

4. Evaluate how well you did when you’ve finished.

This last part, the evaluation piece, is very important, because if you made the plans, told the people, created the list, made the checkpoints, used the buddy system, but somehow still ended up doing it at the last possible second, what did you gain? You could say you still did it, but how is that different from what you were doing already? Evaluate yourself, and see how well you did in the time you set forth. Then, see where the system broke down or became too flexible. Maybe you had the wrong buddy to spur you on. Maybe you made the checkpoints too far apart. Really evaluate it, and then see how it changes next time.

You can do it… TODAY.

Sam

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