Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Procrastination

It should be noted that I am quite the procrastinator. In school I relished the opportunity to put off homework assignments as much as possible. I turned in a final paper from my Fall semester three days before graduating in Spring. I discovered that once I knew a professor would accept a paper late, I could simply go up to that professor on the next assignment, say 'thank you for that extension, did you want it turned in electronically or in paper form?' and although they had never in fact granted me an extension for that assignment, they would simply answer the question rather than admit they had forgotten lengthening the deadline for me.


It is not really something to be proud of though. Because the truth is, I have not perfected it. In order to really reap the benefits of a good procrastination, one must not have that pesky thing called 'guilt' or a 'nagging self-conscious'. Maybe it is because I'm Catholic — although I doubt that — but I end up worrying and constantly thinking about That Which I Did Not Do Yet for much much longer than it takes me to actually do said thing.


So in order to stop feeling so bad about myself, I make lists. And on those lists of things to do, which I have messily scattered about everywhere, I put actual procrastination on there so that I can have something to cross out and feel accomplished. For example in college a list could be:   a) write outline of book b) order dinner c) eat dinner d) REALLY start the outline of book e) take a break and gossip with sorority sisters f) finish outline of book g) watch grey's anatomy h) finish outline of book for real this time.


This way, I have accomplished multiple things to cross off, regardless of what homework I did and the fact that if I was working on the outline the paper was probably due the day before. Okay, okay, the week before.


And here's my point: I have been thinking about doing this blog since February. I have spent months talking about the blog, thinking about the blog, talking to my friends and driving them insane about the blog. I have made lists of blog posts I would write, which are probably outdated at this point. I have walked around internally writing blog posts and wishing I had some magical technology that could just transcribe my thoughts without me having to actually sit and write them. And... to be perfectly honest I walked away from this, got distracted and am now out of the writing zone so...  to be continued...


1 comment:

Meredith said...

Glad you started! And can't think of a better name than "Chocolate & Whiskey" for your blog...brilliant.