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Procrastination

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Well, I did it again. 

It’s June, and that means that I’ve managed to procrastinate writing in this blog for another six months.

How the hell did this happen? 


I have always been a notoriously bad procrastinator, from the time I was relevant enough to have responsibilities to procrastinate on.  In college, the night before a paper was due I’d methodically watch videos of cats falling off of tables and look at Facebook pictures of that one really pretty girl that I don’t even really know, until 2:59AM.  At 3AM, a wave of panic would strike me and I’d magically find the discipline to type nonstop until 9AM, exactly half an hour before my paper was due.  (I also procrastinated in high school, but the Internet wasn’t as big of a thing back then so I spent the time playing 50 straight games of Spider Solitaire.)

Candy Crush got nothing on this OG shit
Although this is a pretty illogical/stupid way to live one’s life, at the end of the day (literally.. heh heh) I was able to accomplish all of the things that needed to be done, simply because if I didn’t, something bad would happen to me.  I’d get a B in math, I would flunk out of college, I’d have to resign myself to a life as a homeless person, etc.
 
Now that I’ve graduated, there aren’t any more deadlines.  
Well, some things still have deadlines, like buying groceries.  That deadline would be death by starvation.  Some things have flexible deadlines, like doing laundry, which I am able to extend by a month or so by purchasing more underwear.

But most things post-graduation don’t have a deadline, like cleaning and exercising and especially blogging.  The worst thing that happens as a result of not blogging is that when you run into an acquaintance at Trader Joe’s and they say “Hey, didn’t you used to have a blog?” you say “Yes, but I am too lazy to update it” and resultantly feel a slight twinge of guilt for a few seconds.  
 
Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want to blog.  Every day after work, I sit down at my computer and tell myself that today is the day I am going to post an entry.  
But unfortunately, a vague twinge of guilt isn’t enough of a panic monster to scare me into blogging.
And so the absence of scary deadlines means that I am procrastinating forever, and this is what a lot of my days subsequently look like: 
 
 
The crazy thing is, I don’t even like doing these things.  (Except watching Digimon.)  I just do them because they are easy and addictive and because I’m lazy.
 
But I realized today that without even knowing it, I’ve been procrastinating for half a year.  2014 is almost HALFWAY OVER. Seriously, where has that time gone?? 
 

Life goes by really, really fast.  We only have so many years to live, and we only have so many days in a year.  It’s a really scary fucking thought.  And the thought that I’ve wasted so much of my time makes it even scarier.

There are so many awesome things that I’ve been procrastinating on, like getting good at piano, reading badass autobiographies, and learning how to code.  You know, worthwhile things.  And a part of growing up is learning how to accomplish things not because something bad will happen if we don’t, but because something good will happen if we do.  

So to all my fellow procrastinators out there, I know getting things done is hard without deadlines and panic attacks, but I have faith in us!  Breaking it up into smaller manageable tasks and creating to-do lists for the day is definitely helpful, even if they are simple tasks:  


I might have mixed up the order a little there but you get the idea. 

So here’s to replacing Instagram and Twitter browsing with painting and blogging, here’s to creating more than we consume, here’s to doing the things that really make us happy and help us grow, here’s to taking back 2014.  Stay tuned, folks!

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Comments

  2. I just spent several hours reading through your blog and I think we agree on a lot of things! Particularly the part where you were talking about how we don't produce anything anymore but just consume, consume, consume – this has been kicking about in my head for a while now. I think it's because it's easier to sit and scroll through FB, watch TV/show/YouTube etc for 6 hours vs personal development. It's the path of least resistance.

    Also I totally agree that you have to make your own fun and actually push yourself to do interesting things, your adventures sound mad! Like why do people need to do things with people e.g. going to the movies, checking out new places to eat/drink……I mean you'll miss out on so much in life just waiting for someone to do things with you. So massive props to you for doing things on your own. Anyway I forgot what else I wanted to say so I'll quote Dr Seuss "All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot!'

    Peace out.

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