Tuesday 30 June 2015

Eighth Deadly Sin

                 
Procrastination is my sin
It causes grief and sorrow.
I'll give it up i swear i will
                  In fact i'll start tomorrow !!!                

Old one ? yep..........corny ? yep...........cliched ? yep..........hackneyed ? yep...........true though isn't it?    or are you one of those incredibly annoying people who are self disciplined and structured?   it's not normal you know?   you can get therapy and hypnosis and medication and learn to be like the rest of us, full on, dedicated, committed, passive aggressive procrastinators.

You see, i need to 

1/    change broadband provider
2/    contact man about mending my broken bendy bed
3/    contact different man about picking up the thingy that didn't fix my          broken  bendy  bed       
4/    make dentist appointment........oooooh yes that one matters....ouch
5/    order cat food.......oooooh yes that WILL matter quite soon

Five little tasks , all they need is a phone call each.    simples !!!!!

So why don't i just get on and do it?    one item at a time, in no particular order.........oh........maybe particular order.......cat first? dentist second?..........dentist first?  cat second?........which will be the most painful soonest?.......hmmmm hard to tell.........tooth hurts most but cat will make the most fuss.........hungry cat would hurt if he decided to assuage his hunger on human flesh..........dentist will definitely cost more than cat food.........unless, of course, i have to feed him the salmon that's in the freezer.........ohhhhh i don't know......can't decide..........make coffee.......check Facebook status.....You understand the difficulty now, yes ???



It's not that i'm lazy or unorganised.   i used to draw up a rota for all the lovely people that worked for me...........everything gets written on a month per view wall planner,.......and, yes, it's read daily, before some wise-arse out there suggests otherwise.  vital stuff gets a reminder note on my breakfast tray......right where the toast goes so i can't apply butter without reading........though buttered note isn't to be recommended.   

My mother, to whom the ditty above can be attributed, used to say "the road to hell is paved with good intentions",  "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak", "leave not until tomorrow what can be done today"......and you thought i was the fount of thoughtless triteness?   now you know where i get it from........and i know she was right, that's the crazy thing, i K N O W  she was right and yet.........and yet.........and yet !!

So.....if you want a theme for today's post it's this...........

IN THE TIME IT'S TAKEN TO WRITE THIS POST I COULD HAVE MADE FIVE PHONE CALLS.................maybe i'll do it tomorrow........





  

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh so very true....and you are definitely not alone in this, just by reading your blog right now and commenting on it I am putting off what I really should be doing..XX Val

Anonymous said...

Im afraid to say.....but sorry i am one of the annoying ones you are on about, quite obsessively OTT, if things aren't done and planned in! Just the way we humans are, we are all different...as the saying goes it wud be a funny and boring world if we were all the same! :-) Daisymay 25

jeni said...

and as somebody i love dearly once said "yeah, laid back love and peace hippydom is a nice thing, but if we were all like that the MRI scanner would never have been invented". how can you argue against that sort of logic

Anonymous said...

most stuff gets thought about but I forget even before the opportunity to procrastinate, write it down I hear you say, I do....when I remember.....but even then I forget to look at the chalkboard, then I will see it and think...oh I must do that thing...that's super procrastination. e.g. water plants Thursday...they get done on Sunday, they still alive so its ok...for now ;-) Sue

Procrastinator in chief said...

I can confirm, it is blooming annoying! Then again, you're always complaining that you've got so much to do, I like to think that I'm avoiding that problem by not doing anything :)

Procrastinator in chief said...

You seem to have hit on a popular issue here!

Stolen from teh interwebs:

"Why do I keep procrastinating when I know it causes me so much anxiety?" You know what you need to do, but you don't do it, or you wait until the last minute. And, time and again, the pattern repeats itself. You feel caught, trapped in a vortex of anxiety, stress, and procrastination. Many of many people tell themselves, that they procrastinate because they are disorganized, lazy, or, worse, because they just don't care enough! Most of the time, nothing could be further from the truth. Procrastinators are often smart, capable, hardworking people-they just can't get things done on time and can't seem to figure out why.

If you are wondering about the reasons behind your procrastination, take a look at the quiz below and see if anything sounds familiar.
Ask yourself:
1. When faced with a task, do you think of all the ways it could go wrong?
2. Do you picture how important people in your life might react if you failed?
3. Do you believe it's better to not try at all than to try your best and fail?
4. Are you overwhelmed by the possibility of new responsibilities if you are successful?
5. Do you subscribe to the idea "If I do well, then others will expect more of me"?
6. Do you feel your success will lead to other people finding out the "real you"?
7. Do you believe that if you're going to do something, you should try to do it perfectly?
8. Do you find it difficult to persist when things aren't going just right?
9. Would you rather avoid doing something than do it imperfectly?

How you answered may tell you a lot about why you procrastinate. A "yes" response to questions 1 through 3 may mean a fear of failure is behind your procrastination. The thought of putting in effort but still failing makes you anxious, so you choose avoiding and procrastinating instead. In this way, when your project fails you can rationalize that it wasn't a true test of your abilities anyway-if only you'd had more time.

On the flip side, a "yes" to questions 4 through 6, may mean you fear success, not failure. Procrastination protects you from the higher expectations and greater responsibilities that may come with succeeding. Like those who procrastinate because they fear failure, you keep yourself safe from facing your true limits by avoiding challenges and putting things off.

If you identified with questions 7 through 9, perfectionism may underlie your avoidance. Because you believe that things should be done perfectly, the result is that nothing gets done at all. When faced with a task, you become overwhelmed and frustrated-paralyzed by impossible standards.

Procrastinator in chief said...

I think my issue is perfectionism. But then if I do something that isn't perfect then I see that as a failure so it's fear of failure too! Might as well throw in a bit of fear of success too. So much fear :(

brokenbutstillstanding62 said...

oh dear......either i don't exist psychologically or........i'm just lazy !!!

Anonymous said...

Yes the Gold award for it certainly goes to you me dear! :-) daisymay 25