I know it’s not just me, right?
Part of my recent ‘list making frenzy’ has been an effort to combat this aspect of myself that, frankly, I’m getting a bit tired of.
Case in point. I’ve been meaning to defrost our freezer for about three weeks now. The freezer drawers barely open and a couple of them have handles that have cracked from having to force them open on occasion. And it’s been niggling like a niggly thing all this time in the back of my mind – must defrost freezer!
Finally did it this morning. It look half an hour. 😕
And it’s always like that with things I keep putting off. The actual doing takes way less effort than living with the niggling notion that I’ve left it undone. So why do I keep doing this?
casa azahar 
Oh, and my computer desk looks very similar to the one in the small pic. Why???
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Well, chaos is the natural order… isn´t it?
…and I´m very procrastinative (correct word?) today… still in bed at 15.41… OK, the painkillers are the main reason… or maybe not. Nevertheless I´ve written a lot of mails and read the newspapers properly. Maybe it´s time for some breakfast…
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Painkillers? You okay, honey? *hug*
Nog and I had a similar lazy Sunday morning last Sunday (comment 13) – didn’t get up until almost 2pm, though we did have coffee quite early on and then a late brunch in bed.
Quite amazing what one can actually get done from one’s bed these days, especially if one has a laptop.
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dragonqueen, I hope you’re ok.
az, I am also afflicted with a procrastination gene. Now my memory is slipping and between the two, I don’t get anything done. I put things off – then forget about them altogether.
You’re so right about it being easier just to fly in and get things over with. One of my New Year’s resolutions every year is to be more organized and to do things immediately when they cross my desk. I’m pathetic.
Last month I had to pay a penalty on my utilities because I didn’t get the check mailed in time. I had the money to pay them – I just kept forgetting about it.
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I’m a procrastinator, too.
At work, I’m a bit better, because the nature of what I actually do there works within a time frame of sorts. And I’m actually quite organized and detail-oriented; a majority of my procrastination is either avoiding things I don’t want to do to begin with, or putting off stuff I know isn’t going to turn out the way I want it, so why bother?
As for memory slippage- I have all of my bills that I can set up for automatic debit because I just will not ever remember to mail them on time. I will forget something you have said me before you’re even done telling me. It’s nothing to do with lack of interest… I just forget a lot of stuff.
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Of course we are all waiting for the Grandmaster of procrastination, the ultimate expression of mañana baby , we’re talkin about Mr It’ll Keep Till Tomorrow himself … and you guessed it.
He probably won’t show up. 😉
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Who would that be, then?
Here’s a dissection of the mind of a procrastinator.
I have to tidy the garden a bit today. It’ll take about half an hour in total. I could start now, but it’s cold out there. By the time it’s warm enough, it’ll be lunchtime. Oh dear, the day’s already over and I haven’t done anything. I might as well just sit here.
Hang on – the day isn’t over; it’s only just started. There’s no problem with getting the job done. But it’s cold out there… (return to beginning; repeat until the day really is over.)
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In a break with the normal state of things, I actually did the garden-tidying. I also stripped, cleaned and reassembled the stove, washed the kitchen floor, cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed everything that looked like it needed it. Maybe I’m unwell.
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I do need a house keeper… Interested, Ivan?
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Dang! Thanks Ivan. I had totally forgotten I’ve been putting off cleaning the oven…
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If you want a housekeeper who only does things once a year, then I’m a good choice. *giggles*
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I’ve been meaning to post something here, but I keep putting it off. Just got to put up the laundry and then I’m onto it
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OK, so I’ve canned 24 litres of pickled beans and strawberry/rhubarb jam but I still can’t get myself to clean the damn place and it’s worse than before I started because of bits of jamminess and a sink full of the pots I used and all the laundry I did when I got back still hasn’t been put away and don’t you hate run-on sentences?
No, you can’t have any because they are my fambly Xmas presents. 😛
Oh, and the bathroom fan isn’t going to install itself, apparently.
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*note* It’s been about three hours since Nog put the laundry up … 😉
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You go, Nog! Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly, especially in heat!
I always tell my clients at work *I may be expensive and do crappy work but at least I’m slow!*
(I told that to *Uncle Bob* (Sesame Street) two days ago and he said *Oh, a union man!*) btw, that dear gentleman is 78 and still working, I hope I’m half as active as he is when I get to my sixties.
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*wipes tears from eyes*
*holds aching belly*
*picks self up from floor*
Now stop that! You’re just trying to get me to miss you more than I already do…
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I’ve been meaning to post something here, but right now I have to go and bring the laundry back in again. Quizas mañana.
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🙄
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😀
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Hmmm.
OK, then.
LOL!
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Did you mean 😀 ?
Apparently you need to space first if you start a new line with a smiley.
Btw, the LOL smiley here is bizarre 😆
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Procrastination, huh? Now here’s a subject I know something about…
I’ve paid bills late, for years, and paid a lot in late fees! For a couple of years, I *deliberately* paid my rent in two payments, even though it meant a $25 late fee, in the mistaken belief that I couldn’t afford to pay it all at once — when all I really needed was to sit down and budget! Arrrggghhh!
I’ll see your cluttered desk, az, and raise you — a pic of mine, when I have an after pic to send which I will get around to doing when I finally reload the software for my cheapo digital camera…(and which would require me to actually *clean* the d*mn thing first!) 😉
Diane
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Procrastination? Tell me about it! (Tomorrow, maybe. 😉 )
Yup, it’s something I’ve definitely got to work on – and indeed something I am going to work on, as part of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. It causes so many problems! Often I delay doing something very simple (like paying a bill) so long that it becomes more complicated/ expensive to sort out. Then I get nervous about making the phone call that it now takes to sort it out…and so on down the spiral.
Yes…and my freezer needs defrosting too.
“Masturbation is the thief of time.”
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It actually makes me happy to see that I am not the only one 🙂 Not that I thought I was, but it’s comforting nevertheless.
My brain loves to jump on to something else at any given chance, so postponing things really isn’t a good idea. Pity that it’s often so nice to do…
Anyway, I had this load of w**k to do… *plods off in general direction of desk*
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My oven still hasn’t been cleaned … possibly because we won’t use it again until next Christmas?
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Well, if you’re already planning to use it again, there’s no point in cleaning it. It’ll just get dirty.
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Hmmm…kind of like why make the bed when you’re just going to mess it up again in a few hours?
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Exactly. Cleaning, in general, can be seen as futile. PJ O’Rourke rightly points out that, because of gravity, dirt doesn’t stay on the walls and the ceiling – and there’s no point in cleaning the floor because you’ll just stir up all the dust and get it all over the walls and the ceiling. It’s a never-ending process, so why start?
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Wasn’t it Quentin Crisp who said after about three years of not cleaning things don’t get any dirtier? (or something like that)
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Yes, that was Quentin. Even I draw the line at that much procrastination…
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I don’t put off cleaning my oven. I don’t do it as a matter of principle. It is supposed to be self-cleaning, and the instructions say never to use oven cleaner on it or you will ruin the self-cleaning surface. But the switch that makes it possible to turn on the self-cleaning cycle is broken and the stove is so old the switch it obsolete and no longer available. So I sweep out the carbonized bits once in a while and I refer to it as “The Black Hole of Calcutta”. Who says ovens need to be clean anyway? Does it bake the bread? Roast the beast? Then who cares. It is closed most of the time anyway.
My mother in law never cleaned her oven. She never used it either, except for storing crackers and waxed paper and the roll of plastic wrap. One day mon mari and I decided to make cookies and started to preheat the oven. Never mind. You don’t want to know.
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I have an eensy dishwasher (installed by the previous tenants) that I use for extra storage space. I’ve lived in this flat for four years and have never used it for its intended purpose. So no chance of anyone ever turning it on by mistake.
With the oven it’s more a worry of a grease fire starting inside it … as it is, last time we used it smoke started billowing out and made the whole apartment building smell like ten roast dinners all at once. 😕
Which is weird because we’ve maybe made about four roast dinners in it …
A few months ago we actually went out and bought some oven cleaning stuff but after reading the instructions (Danger! Corrosive substance! Avoid any skin or eye contact!) I was too scared to use it.
In four years I think I’ve used that oven less than a dozen times … how did it get so dirty and grease encrusted? Maybe I just don’t use it enough to end up with easy-to-sweep-out carbonized bits …?
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Going back to Quentin Crisp – I once knew someone who lived by his standards. Her place actually looked kinda scary, cobwebs and thick layers of dust covering almost everything, though she was very neat and tidy about her own personal appearance. Weird.
But this brings to mind the question – who actually dusts their place (shelves and books and furniture and – eep!- walls) on a regular basis?
Here is a photo taken by blicky of me and Nog at home. A very rare moment of actually being able to see the top of my computer table and my ‘extended desk’ next to it (where the blue vase is). Well, cos we’d tidied up before our visitor arrived.
Me and Nog
Usually, like now, those spaces are totally covered with all sorts of crap … and clouds of dust come off every book we take off the bookshelf.
Are we ‘normal’ or just very lazy procrastinating pigs?
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You are normal. I don’t know a lot of people who dust on a regular basis. The only ones I have met that do are usually obsessive compulsive anal retentives, and have a lot of other problems as well.
My mother, bless her, has a long list of things that she needs and wants to do. As you read this bear in mind she is now 78 years old. For example: take care of a herd of 75 cattle, tend an entryway garden of irises, daylilies, various shrubs that is 1/4 mile long, tend a half acre garden and can and freeze the produce that comes out of it, take care of 27 miles of fence (really, 27 MILES) around the farm, literacy tutor for three people, deliver meals on wheels, square dance twice a week. Housework is far down her list of things that need doing. In fact, I would say it is last on the list. I think I probably take after her.
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I was going to reply to this the other day when I saw it but . . . 😉
On a more serious note (and speaking as a Black Belt in the art of Procratination), why is it, and I share this with others here, that the thing(s) you put off doing are so often not as bad/scary/difficult as you feared?
Its one thing just “can’t be bothered to do it”, but if you have actively put off doing it for whatever reason, and with the experience that tells you that it might be bad but its unlikely to be THAT bad – why keep (not) doing it?
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‘Cos it’s boring, usually. Or potentially boring. Or it’s been dogging you for so long that it’s come to appear boring…
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