Procrastination is a beautiful thing. Usually I am pretty good at getting stuff done. I have my to do lists, I have my goals, I have my WHY to motivate me. But sometimes I am more stubborn than the stains on my kids’ clothes and more distracted than a two-year-old who’s eaten a packet of smarties, and I just don’t get things done. Shock horror.
The thing is… We all suffer from procrastination at times. Please tell me you do?!
For me, sometimes I procrastinate because it’s something I don’t want to do. Other times it’s because I’m wanting the project to be perfect so I put it off until the inspiration hits me and I am in “The Zone”.
And other times, I procrastinate because, well, there is something better to do. Like who wants to vacuum inside their car when you know the kids will destroy it within 48 hours? That said, if you have a heap of work to do on a computer, say an assignment or some work, your car simply must be cleaned to within an inch of its life so that it’s cleaner than the day you bought it…
I’ve cleaned my entire house to get out of doing work I was meant to be doing. Hell, I’ve done everything but write this one piece of content this month because I was waiting for inspiration to hit me. But it didn’t.
I’ve looked around as I thought, “Is it just me who is a brilliant procrastinator?” But my research didn’t take long. My kids are brilliant procrastinators too. I’ve never seen two humans do everything but clean their playroom when you sit them in there to do it. Five hours later, it’s messier than it was when they first began.
My husband is the same, 10 years later and he still hasn’t finished painting our house.
It’s an epidemic!
So how do we fix it? Well, I procrastinated some more and did a Google search. Four hours and many cat videos later, I came across Tim Urban who did a Ted Talk about procrastination. Do yourself a favour and Google it, it’s hilarious and sums up procrastination perfectly.
Sometimes, procrastination is our friend. It’s that little voice inside our heart that wants us to wait and it’s a good thing we did. But sometimes procrastinating gives us an extra surprise we didn’t want. Think of it like procrastinating to take out the bin in our very hot summer… you’re going to get some nasty extras that you didn’t want and a big wiggly mess to clean up and still have to do the job anyways.
So if you’re procrastinating right now – go do it. But first, Google that Tim Urban video and tell us what you think.
