Friday, August 15, 2008

Procrastination is my middle name

I remember the first time I heard the word 'procrastination'. I was about 10-11 years old and my mother used it to describe me as I was putting off some task I had to do. I stopped and asked her to say the word again and tell me what it meant. I repeated it. I just loved the sound of it - the way it rolled off the tongue. Of course what I didn't realize was that somehow my soul innately felt drawn to this word.

And here I am on this August afternoon avoiding (or should I say procrastinating) folding the rest of the clean laundry. Folding laundry isn't so bad but for some reason today I have found several other things to do rather than fold (like post a new blog entry). It sits there as I clean out my closet and finish unpacking from our trip (yep - I got home on Monday from that and I'm just getting around to putting the rest of the odds and ends away on Friday). I worked out, made breakfast and lunch (oh wait, I bought lunch on my way home) for my boys. I needed to water the plants outside (its been dry lately) and then a few friends dropped by to say hello or drop something off. And now I need to go bake those cupcakes for Luke's bday celebration tomorrow. The laundry can wait.

The thing about us procrastinators is we have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. We, of course, hate them because it is this looming time-bomb just waiting to go off. "What if we don't have *it* finished by then? What if *it*s not just right by then?" But then there's the appreciation of knowing that it gives us a boundary to work in - us procrastinators really need boundaries.

So my self-proclaimed deadline is tonight by the time my husband arrives home from his trip. That will probably be around midnight so I still have a few hours to go. I know that when I am getting ready for bed tonight, I am going to be kicking myself for not folding this laundry earlier in the day when I wasn't feeling like I could fall asleep standing up. Maybe I'll just spend this next 5-10 minutes folding it and then it will be off my shoulders.....or maybe I should get those cupcakes started.

No comments: