Procrastination

Procrastinate [proh kras tuh neyt] v. 1. to defer action; delay 2. to put off til another day or time; defer; delay 3. imitate M anytime something important needs to be done

As you can see from the definition above (from dictionary.com), I am a chronic procrastinator. I am not proud of this fact, however I own it as one of the flaws that has thus far kept me from being taken up into Heaven like the City of Enoch and all its inhabitants. As a child, my school projects were always late-night affairs, a situation that didn't change much in high school and only marginally improved in college for short bursts. And while I've become much more self-disciplined since entering the work force as an adult, I still struggle with a sort of atrophy and ADD that leads me to waste time checking my email and blog stalking (and blog posting--cha-ching!) for hours instead of productively doing my home work or cleaning out that closet in my bedroom.

Apparently I need the threat of a deadline looming over my head in order to be truly motivated.

This past week my procrastination attained a new personal best, when I waited until Tuesday afternoon to start writing a paper that was due in class Tuesday night. Even better, when I woke up that morning, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to write about. I had spent all Monday evening "studying" and "preparing" for my paper, and while I had done legitimate reading for class, I had nothing to show for all the "mental prep" I'd done on my paper.

Tuesday afternoon at work, I covertly spent a couple of hours writing my paper. At 4pm, I left work (to beat the traffic) and raced home so I could work on it for another 90 minutes before I had to leave for class. I completed the paper literally in the nick of time: I finished writing it at 6:29 and had to leave for campus (where I still had to print it out at the library) at 6:30. (How it is that I am a functioning adult who makes a good living and yet still does not have a printer at home is another story.) Thankfully, the paper only had to be three pages long and was more of an observational analysis than a proper research paper. Otherwise, I would have been completely hosed.

Oh my but that is shameful! Waiting until the day of to start the paper! Really?! This procrastination thing has got to go!

Eh, maybe I'll get rid of it tomorrow. I still have some blogs to read tonight.