This week become attentive and might I say, mindful of all of the ways that you procrastinate. Permit me be clear however. When I say procrastinate I’m really referring to the little things, to the small stuff. We all procrastinate on big decisions in our lives, decisions like
Should I marry this person or not?
Should I have a child or not?
Should I move to North Dakota or not?
Should I quit my job or keep my job?
These are big decisions that require thought and some intuitive instincts about what’s right for you that really need to incubate, evolve and take shape over time. With time the big decisions become clearer.
The procrastination that I’m referring to in this week’s challenge is procrastinating over the small things. Now, we are certainly different people so I’m sure my list of how I procrastinate will differ from yours substantially. However, let me provide a few examples by way of providing an insight into exactly what I’m talking about. There are a few of the ways that I procrastinate.
Do you procrastinate when the mail is received? “Oh, I’ll just put that aside, I don’t really have time to shift through the mail right now.”
Do you procrastinate when you receive an e-mail from a close friend that requires a response? “Well, that’s not what I planned to do right now so I’m not going to respond to that e-mail at this very moment.”
Do you procrastinate when you pay a bill that actually arrives in the mail? “Oh, let me open up the bill, see what it is. Oh wow, that’s a little more than I expected. Let me just put that away in my little pocket of where I keep my bills. I’ll attend to paying my bills at a later point this particular month.”
Do you procrastinate over washing the dishes when the dishes are dirty?
Do you procrastinate over buying a present for a relative whose birthday is coming up next week and you think today, “Today is the day I really should buy them a birthday present. Today really is not too soon, but wait a minute, today was not the day that I planned on doing that so I’ll have to defer that activity until tomorrow.”
Do you procrastinate when you think to yourself, “I really would like to talk to my son, my daughter, my mother, my father, my uncle, my aunt, my grandfather, my grandmother.” You know, the kind of people that are important people in our lives. Do you think, “Oh I really ought to call them today” and then the next thought is, “Oh no, no, no, I really don’t have time. That call will take some time and as I look through the day that I have planned there’s just not enough time.”
Do you procrastinate when the phone rings and you hear a message on your phone answering machine and you say to yourself, “That’s important for me to attend to but I really don’t feel up to talking with that person right now so what I’m going to do is I’ll answer that call later today or well, maybe I’ll put it off until tomorrow.”
Do you procrastinate when you think to yourself, “During the day I need to go out and get all of the trash in the trash bin for the trash person to pick up who is coming tomorrow. I need to do that right now because later on tonight it really might be too dark for me to see any of it and it may be that it will be raining. But it will probably not rain tonight so I will just wait until later”
I obviously could go on and on with a list of the ways that I procrastinate. Are some of these ways that you procrastinate too? I will cut off my list of the many ways I procrastinate (which it would fill up a 400 page book if I continued).
For the next several days be mindful about all of the many ways that you set aside the little business that needs to be taken care of; those small tasks that all the sudden come up
- You know they need to be done.
- You know you want to do them.
You simply put the small tasks aside routinely for what seems to be good reasons.
How do you procrastinate?
- Reflect.
- Become aware.
- Acknowledge when you procrastinate.
- Track every little small act you put off.
If you want to get really serious about this final week’s challenge, write down all of the different ways that you discover you actually procrastinate.
To clarify, put aside the big decisions. We are talking about the small stuff here. I’ll be back in touch in three days to say more about why this particular challenge, this final week of the Mindfulness exercises, has been so helpful to me personally.
Robert
© Parkinsons Recovery