Do you know who is the Queen Of Procrastination? Well, before you fight for the title, let me tell you. It’s Me. š
Of course, it’s not something to be proud of and I am not proud of it either. Lately I’ve been into this habit, quite frequently, more often for almost everything. If I have to water my plants, I say, may be later. If I have a package to send, I think may be later. Work, chores, fun activities, books, art,..for anything and everything! Being so ignorant and negligent, what do you think was the end result? It’s quite obvious : “Piled-Up-Work“. This habit is worse than drugs. You have no idea how addictive it is and how hard it is to quit!
“Later” should not become “Too Late”.
Every morning I tell myself, “Today I will finish all the chores, I will submit all the pending work files, I will finish the book that I started reading a week ago,……….”. But do I? Nope.
My mother always told me;
“if you say tomorrow; tomorrow you will say the same”.
When I got to know that the final assignment on Writing 201 was “personal reflection”, the word that came to my mind was, “Later”. Ā As soon as I heard myself say that I realized, I must stop it and I must write about this. I regret to admit the fact that, I haven’t done my previous assignment for Writing 201 yet – “opinion piece”. Why? The reason could be, “I do not know what to write”; which is of course true. But the main reason is “Procrastination” and the word “Later“.
Usually, am not like this. If I want to do something, I’d do it immediately. What has gotten into me that made me into such a pathetic moron? For the pastĀ 2 months, I have had a really tough time and lost so many important things in life that made me so sluggish. I stopped caring, I stopped being punctual. I stopped it all, brought down the curtains and shut the doors. I wasn’t myself anymore; drowned in sadness and self pity which took me nowhere but here. In order to get a clear picture, I asked various questions to myself.
Q:Ā Am I being careless?
A:Ā Yes, I am.
Q:Ā Am I becoming lazy?
A:Ā Yes, I am.
Q:Ā Am I becoming useless?
A:Ā Yes. I am.
The questions were ruthless and the answers were even worse. I felt so guilty. I still do. I have 3 days’ work pending, an opinion piece for Writing 201, household chores, some paper work at the bank, am yet to prepare for important exam next week, and a lot more which I have been pushing aside with a tag “Later”.
I started thinking about the sun, if he said “later”, will I have food to eat? If the earth said “later”, will I have day and night? If my heart said “later”, will I still be alive?
We expect everything to be done on time, the drama to be aired at 8, should be aired at 8. A pizza should be delivered at our home, exactly in 10 minutes from ordering it. The ambulance and fire engine should come to the accident spot to save the victim from dying with 5 minutes from calling. So much accuracy with no space for procrastination. Not even for the thought “later” because it is life or death. Do or die situations. What we think is not so important, could be the life for someone else. Sometimes, we are damaging our own future because of our foolishness.
When everyone is doing their job at the right time, so many lives are saved and there is greater productivity. If I don’t do my own work on time then how in the world am I ever going to save people and improve productivity in some way? This huge circulation and cycle of thoughts and the design of work-life scared the hell out of me. Thus, I came to a conclusion:
“Here’s my new year’s resolution. No More Procrastination.”
And there I am, procrastinating the good deed until New Year.
Hah! Funny, isn’t it? To wait until new year to bring a good change, to do something nice? If you wish to do something good, do it now. Start right away. As I write this, a gush of blood pumps into my veins. Want to quit smoking? Quit now. Want to keep some money aside for charity? Do now. Want to get rid of toxic people from your life? Get rid of them now. Wish to make the world a better place by going green? Go green now.
There’s never a better day and a better time to do something good than today and right now.Ā
So, here I am, writing about how I feel and hoping that other fellow procrastination experts who are reading this and those who have other dukes, duchess, kings, princes and princesses of procrastination in their friends circle to understand, spread the word, share this and create awareness about the harmful effects of this terrible illness and help recover from thisĀ at the earliest, so as to live a stress free life.
I’m able to admit this ruthless fact because I’m able to confront it, find ways to quit and I’m working on it right away. Make this as your own self reflection piece, and think, are you a fellow procrastinator? Are you being a hypocrite? If yes, you need not tell it out loud. You can join me silently and quit right now.
Friends, if I come back and publish another post – “The Pending Opinion Piece” on writing 201 on my blog, you can conclude that I’ve crossed the first step in getting over the illness. I will finish all my pending tasks, work files, chores and other duties and come back to you at the earliest.
Wish you all the best, if you are joining me on the “procrastination-free lifestyle”. It is never too late if you start right now. Think twice. Act wise. š
~Yuvathi ā¤ š
The Confused Young Adult 