Procrastination: Not motivated enough to be an art form.

           As I head into today, I do so with a bit of concern.  I have a ton of work I have to get done at home, but I have to work today first.  It all comes down to keeping promises.  I said I would make knee pads for the AWANA games and I have 2 sets complete.  Only 8 more to go.  Unfortunately, that means another 16 individual knee pads which are about a third of the way complete (I have the squares of material cut out).  I still need to pick up the stuffing, make the straps, and sew them all together.  Nothing big, just the basics.  Oh, and I have to go grocery shopping before I start this.  Hopefully I can get out of here early today, but I am not counting on it.  What it all comes down to is, I didn't plan well and put it off.  Procrastination attacks again.  I am working on getting better about it, but I slip a little to often.
         I have heard it said, "never do today what can be put off until tomorrow."  I don't know who said it, but whoever did was obviously trying to get someone else to do their work.  I say this from personally experience (which is why I am trying to get better at doing things right away).  A procrastinator puts things off, not because he doesn't care about them, but because he doesn't want to do them.  He puts it off in hopes that either someone else will do it or that the problem solves itself (it rarely does, by the way). 
          I finally realized this a few years ago when I became a home owner.  At first, I thought the house was OK (I never really loved it, but it was ours).  Then I started noticing things wrong with it.  At first they were small and I kept putting them off.  I would point them out to my wife and say things like, "I'll get to it," or "but that's for later."  There was always something more important or some other reason.  It wasn't until I stared at the same problem for a month that I realized no one else was going to do it and it most definitely was not going away.  At that point I realized that I had to start doing something on the growing Honey do list.
          After we completed a few of the projects I noticed a strange anomaly.  Every time I took something off of the list, two more items would replace it.  This would probably be a good time to point out that this wasn't a theoretical list, but a no kidding written list on the side of the fridge.  What started as a quarter page of things (some small one minute items, others massive undertakings), was now a full page with the top eighth scratched off.  The list "mysteriously" disappeared shortly after that.
         The lesson learned from all this is, don't make a list.  It only depresses you and makes you want to do it less.  Tackle each job as you come across it.  If you can wait to do it for a few days because of prior plans, then it must not be that important and didn't need to go on the list in the first place, so why bother.  And that is where you realize that procrastination has been replaced by apathy.
        Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.