So here it is Sunday night, at the end of a long Thanksgiving vacation weekend. My plans for the evening consisted of doing laundry, grocery shopping, a little deep cleaning, and some furniture rearranging if time allowed. It is now 9:34pm and I just put the first load in the wash, my fridge is bare (unless you count the pan of stuffing that I brought home from the office Thanksgiving party week before last- yikes!), I have cleaned nothing, and my bed is currently situated in the smack middle of my bedroom with an 80lb dog holding it in place. I did, however, make it 5 minutes late to the 6:30pm showing of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.
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| Ohhhh epic... |
And now, here I am working on a post, researching a myriad of Twilight posters, while my best laid plans continue to just lay there. I'm not normally much of a procrastinator. In fact, my M.O. is to have things done so far ahead of time that something changes and I have to redo it. However, tonight, I just didn't feel like getting my butt in gear and buckling down. And since I rarely grant myself this kind of slack, I don't feel bad about it. But in this case, my lack of motivation will not affect anyone but me and Mickey (and perhaps my coworkers depending on what top I pull out of the dirty clothes hamper and whether I can get motivated by morning to put on deoderant). So there really is no big deal to taking my last night of vacation for myself and just chillin' like a villain.
Now, tomorrow when I get to the office and have deadlines that have to be met and work that has to be done, I don't have the same freedom to grant myself these types of breaks. However, at certain points we have to step back, take a break and reset. I think we can all agree that when our brain gets bogged down with so many thoughts and so many actions, we stop being productive in the way that we need to. So, when is it ok to grant ourselves these pardons? Whether it's studying for an exam, working on a project, trying to hit a work deadline, or just even fulfill social obligations (this one tends to be my biggest hang up).
I don't have a magical answer, although if I did, I wouldn't be sharing it here for you all to read for free. I would turn it into a 200 page Best Seller, "Dr. Synthia's Guide to Perfect Procrastination". That's just my working title, still throwing around ideas. But I know several people right now that I observe and see the pressures of work, or school, or life bogging them down and procrastination doesn't seem like an option. But we all need breaks, and we have to be able to take them in order to maintain function and sanity. In fact I often attribute my personal productivity not so much to what I am doing with my working time but instead what I am doing with my procrastination time. My breathing space is so important to being able to come back and work hard and accomplish anything. For instance, taking tonight to myself will most likely result in a productive rest of my week- which is much more important to me.
I guess all I mean to accomplish with this post is to get you thinking about how and when you procrastinate, and do you effectively procrastinate? I guess now is the time that I also need to acknowledge that fact that one goal of this post is actually procrastination itself. Allow yourself room to take breaks, and don't sweat it if you do. But if you are going to, try to make sure that your breaks will give you the necessary fuel to be successful. Organic motivation.
Speaking of which, I think it is officially time to switch the laundry, get Mickey off the bed, put it into place, and see what I can dig out of my cabinet to fashion into some form of lunch for tomorrow. Or not...
If you have any magical cures or advice that you would like me to add to my book, I think we would all love to hear them!
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