Have you ever had one of those otherworldly experiences where it’s almost like being out of your body, watching yourself go about your day? I don’t mean like a near death experience watching, but more like a part of you just detaches and observes objectively while you do whatever it is that you’re doing. That happened to me yesterday, and it ended up being a really interesting experience in watching myself procrastinate.
Maybe it’s because I am working at overcoming my own procrastination habit, or maybe it’s because I wrote an article about it the other day, but the topic was fresh in my mind. I was really interesting to watch too, as I did everything I could think of before I actually sat down to write. And by the time I did run out of things to do, someone had instant-messaged me, and by the time that conversation was done my son was home from work and it was time to get dinner ready.
Here’s just a sample of how the afternoon went…
I fired up the laptop so that I could read some research material I had downloaded.
Then I thought, I’d better grab a drink so I don’t have to get up and get one later.
Okay, got a drink. Opened the first pdf and started reading. Oops, was that my stomach growling? Better go make some lunch… can’t concentrate when I’m hungry.
Okay, got lunch. Sit back down and start reading again. Hmmm… it’s getting awfully dark in here… is it raining? Better go and check…”
It was about that time my observer self kicked in and I heard this voice clear as day… “Wow, would ya look at that! That is the finest display of pure procrastination I have ever seen!”
And even though I knew I was doing it, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I made a coffee, copied some files from the desktop over to the laptop (just in case the hydro went out during the storm — it didn’t), fed the dog… It was truly amazing. And all because I have a deadline. The goal for yesterday was to write 10 articles towards my total of 200 by the end of the month. My grand total for yesterday — 0. Impressive, eh? Not.
So now I have to write 20 today and every day until the end of the month to meet my goal. I can only imagine how much procrastinating I’ll do today. Oh yeah, it’s floor day… 20 articles is no problem when you’re procrastinating on scrubbing floors and steam cleaning carpets.
Better go make a coffee before I start. You want one?