BLOG 30: ‘Procrastination is the Thief of Time’

Who wrote that?

Well, we all procrastinate, it is part of our human condition, but this month I seem to have

outdone myself.

I had forgotten that February only has 28 days and suddenly this blog - and a fair number of

other jobs that I had been putting off - gained a sort of emergency status!

Though I have never really thought of myself as a procrastinator, I have now reassessed this

assumption and found that in reality, I make extraordinarily creative ways to avoid jobs that

really need doing. Sometimes these ‘scenic routes’ are a good thing - I have had some good

ideas in these moments and discovered alternative ways to do mundane things.

Every day I make a (really long!) list of things I ‘really must get around to doing’. Having filled

up yet another shorthand notebook, I sat down to go through and ‘carry forward’ all the

undone things into a fresh book, and I realised that at least 5 of my ‘to dos’ from the first

page of the book were still on the last page of the book - we are talking about a period of

approximately 2 months!

Of course our lives often do tend to get in the way of our ‘best laid plans’ and things really

do happen that weren’t on anybody’s list! Excuses aside though, I thought it must be time to

actually DO some of these things. Most of them were phone calls, or administrative jobs

connected to moving house, or lists of impossible recipes that I should make and the

resulting shopping lists they caused.

Then I noticed that word – things I SHOULD do. Chris often picks me up on this word and I

have therefore concluded that perhaps I don’t procrastinate - I just make up jobs to do that

don’t really need doing at all! I just somehow feel obligated to do them.

Also last night we had the most brilliant Snow Moon - a full moon (named from Native

American traditions referring to the snowy conditions of this time of year) and this month I

came to think (as did Chris!) perhaps I was affected by the strength of the moon.

Post-full moon I feel I can prioritise and ‘just get on with it’!

Let’s see how long that lasts… Oops! Sorry - someone has just arrived at the front door with

cake. That should put off the inevitable for another hour or so!

By the way, ‘Procrastination is the thief of time’ was written by Edward Young in his poem

‘Night-Thoughts’. He wrote it between 1742 – 1745. Some human traits seem destined to

remain unchanged!

Enjoy March.