Procrastination: On Second Thought

I was pretty unequivocal in my solution to procrastination:  from now on I’ll give myself three days, then muscle through whatever I’m putting off (see 12/13/11).  Clearly this would keep thing from piling up and reduce my information overload.  However.  The day after that post, something weird happened that made me rethink this hard and fast approach.

My husband and I had been meaning to get him Long Term Disability Insurance, and his employer didn’t offer it.  Without it, we were jeopardizing our family’s financial stability, should something awful happen and he couldn’t work.  But LTD insurance falls into the category of “Grown Up Stuff We’d Rather Not Think About,” so for years we did nothing.  Our financial planner must have been drinking herself to sleep with all our foot dragging. 

Over the summer we finally began conversations with an insurance guy who could get us private LTD insurance.  At a steep price.  We (I) got the ball rolling…then dropped it.  I didn’t follow through and it became one more monkey on my back.  Fast forward to December 14^th:  My husband comes home with his new benefits package, and lo and behold, his company will start offering group (much cheaper) LTD insurance come January 1^st.  Happy new year!

Enough with the inner workings of my financial life.  The point is that procrastination seems to serve a purpose sometimes.  When we think we're putting things off, the universe is actually looking out for us.  Apparently we have to learn how to distinguish between good procrastination and bad procrastination.  Right now, I don’t know how to tell the two apart.  

Field Experiment #2: Procrastination Comes to Visit

The three of you reading this may have noticed there were no posts in November.  Zero.  Zilch.  Nada.  Seems I unwittingly conducted another Field Experiment, this time in procrastination.  I had a bit of writer’s block, and the longer I went without posting, the bigger deal it became.

We all know how this works:  The field trip permission slip goes unsigned until you’re running towards school while the buses are loading.  You’re at FedEx on December 22^nd, spending more on shipping than the gift.  The electric bill goes unpaid until it costs extra to pay over the phone.  It would be nice if we didn’t bring these crises on ourselves, but alas, such is human nature.

Around the world, people with advanced degrees are researching the science of procrastination (I wonder if they ever put off writing their reports?), so getting to the root of this evil is beyond me.  However, I can tell you what finally got me to write this post:  I treated procrastination like a houseguest.  I welcomed procrastination warmly, we had some laughs, then on Day Three I showed procrastination the door.

I’m going to keep using this technique whenever I just can’t get something done.  I’ll mark procrastination’s three-day visit on my calendar, and on the last day I’ll forge ahead with the dreaded task.

Who knows, maybe procrastination will leave early next time?