Me Procrastinating? Procrasti-Cleaning, Actually

Toni

I decided to write about one of my hobbies – procrastination, and then immediately vacuumed the house and packed a few more boxes for my upcoming move. Give me a project and it’s a given that I’ll do anything other than the job in hand.* For a while.

I’m not one for slamming up against deadlines by any stretch, but I also don’t always get on with it. I was going to say “I’m not very good at getting on with it”, - but that implies procrastination is a bad thing. Sometimes it can be productive. When I’m writing for example, the actual content and the angle, need to percolate. By the time I hit the keyboard (and in some cases, actually put pen to paper), the piece is all but written in my head; all I have to do is edit the waffle out, tighten the sentences and try to inject some funnies. This post was largely composed at the kitchen sink, after I’d done the hoovering and packing. (Had to do another chore just to cement the last paragraph!)

Reading about procrastination in Psychology Today, I was initially miffed by their position – “..procrastinators chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions. Procrastination in large part reflects our perennial struggle with self-control.” I beg your pardon. But then it goes on – "Perfectionists are often procrastinators; it is psychologically more acceptable to never tackle a task than to face the possibility of falling short on performance.” Hmm. still umbrage, since this implies that we procrastinators never get anything done. It’s not even that I don’t want to do the task in hand, it’s just that it needs a bit of mental preparation. 

The Procrastination Pundit however, recognizes the genius in my approach - "So maybe procrastinating at the right time can elevate your game. Start your task as if you like it and then procrasti-something-active.  This will nicely blend the benefits of physical activity and you may find those tasks you avoided may not be so bad after all."
 That’d be me. Elevating my game. 

*The Procrastination Pundit would say I had been procrasticleaning or procrastipacking. Very clever.