I Procrastinate and It’s Okay

I love my agenda. I like structure and organization. And I enjoy getting things done.

So why, oh why, do I still procrastinate.

By now I had planned on having lots of back-up posts ready for the blog. I have plenty of ideas written down, and some pictures taken, but no full posts ready to go. And this lack of readiness is driving me crazy! I really enjoy writing on here and interacting with people who share my interests, so the idea of not posting (like I failed to on Monday) makes me realize I will miss out on those things.

I would like to say it is an easy fix.

• Wake up an hour earlier
• Plan out my day to the hour or half hour
• Set goals

But it’s not. Especially since I do all those things:

I go to bed around 10:00p.m. and wake at 6:00a.m. every day, so this gives me exactly 8 hours of sleep. Without this sleep I am often exhausted, stressed, and tend to get sick. So no way am I decreasing my sleep by an hour.

I use my agenda religiously. It may not be down to the hour but it is not feasible for what I do. My work cannot be broken down into time slots because of the nature of the work, instead I write out things that need to be done within the work day. Same goes for my classes. Each class is an hour and a half long (three hours in certain cases), and that time is spent in class with no room for specification of what to do during that time. Though I do sometimes schedule social media time during class…don’t tell.

Set goals? According to my family and friends, I have too many of these on the go at any given time. I set daily goals for each piece of homework, each assignment, each chore, each activity, etc. Plus I have the usual long term goals like move to a new apartment, buy a house, graduate, get fit, and more. Having these keeps me on track but only to a certain extent. After a while there are so many goals that my true goal become FIND TIME TO RELAX.

So as it stands, I have a confession…

I procrastinate.

I am going to keep doing it.

And that is fine with me.

With school, work, home life, and a blog, procrastination can be deadly. I could do an assignment last minute and get a bad grade. I could slack off at work and under perform. Or I could let my house turn to ruin. And heaven forbid I could miss more blog posts and fail to interact with my readers.

Yet, I do not really do any of those things to the extent that it causes harm or negativity. Never have I had a bad grade simply due to the time spend on an assignment. I have not slacked off at work in a way that resulted in a poor quality or delayed product. My house has been messy but never unliveable. And I have not (yet) procrastinated on blogging badly enough to effectively stop posting.

And why is this okay with me? Because the trade-off is worth it. The trade-off is my sanity. If I did class work for the suggested 3 hours per hour in class that was suggested to me last week I would literally have no time left in my week (after accounting for school time, work, transportation time, sleep, and time to eat and take care of hygiene). I exaggerate slightly…I would have approximately 20 hours left which would probably go to miscellaneous things like grocery shopping and cooking.

Further to this point, if I did not take breaks at work, my brain would not only explode but my work would suffer because I need to be of sound mind. For home life, chores are great and all but I also need to spend time with my husband. And the blog is enjoyable only as much as I enjoy the activity. The day it becomes a chore and a stressor, is the day I truly need to back off.

So bear with me. I may skip a post here and there so that I can focus on some other aspect of my life. I do this only to preserve my sanity and get some much needed relaxation after all the other stresses.

 

Are you a procrastinator too? Why do you do it? Have any tips to avoid it?
Do the tips you’ve heard actually work?

Let me know by sounding off in the comments below…I am sure I will read them eventually (Just kidding I am usually really good at reading them and replying!)