I just spent an hour cleaning all the dust, cat hair and crumbs out of my keyboard…
Before that I was enjoying the peace and sunshine outside: you know, before it pours down again, got to make the most of the sun while it’s shining in South Wales or it disappears on you…
Before that I was attempting to build up TOH’s confidence and get him working on his final project, because I am so fed up with his self pity party about his artistic talents (which, by the way are pretty big and he just can’t see it) so I had a go at the stone wall he’s built up…
And of course he’s watching Ben 10 Alien Force with the kids which is a distraction…
…Yes, I’m procrastinating.
It’s not about getting any writing done and I know exactly what I am avoiding doing.
Even writing this piece is procrastination in itself. However, I need to get my head into the right frame of mind and writing about what’s bothering me helps me to do that.
Even when I’m not entirely sure what is exactly bothering me!
So I decided to try and work out what was bothering me by starting with procrastination itself – and I found this:
I worked my way through the brainstorm and found that today, my source of procrastination is my own fault.
I’m supposed to be working on my final major project, a piece of shoulder armour Jewellery. The design is fairly easy to make, overlapping plates that curve around the arm and go from neck to the back of the hand. The construction will be simple as well; holes drilled through the plates linked with wire.
Nothing massively difficult to do, I just have to make the plates.
And there’s my problem.
I have high expectations, so I get frustrated when something goes wrong that I get stressed. When I get stressed, I get a headache and I really don’t want to have a headache. Every piece of the armour that goes wrong builds up the stress. Yesterday, I only managed to complete five plates out of twenty that I made, and I got a mild headache that meant I couldn’t concentrate on any more.
*sighs*
So I this morning I found myself procrastinating. Avoiding doing the work because I don’t want to get another headache. Now I know what I’m doing, I can get on and avoid the headache by taking some preventative measures.
While I was working out why I was procrastinating, I discovered a website by John Perry, a philosophy professor at Stanford University and winner of an Ig Nobel prize for the essay that I discovered in my search for the reason I was procrastinating!
“Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it.
Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important.
If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. “
This was the paragraph in the essay that made me blink and think. I have, in the back of my mind, a list of several important things I need to do. Here they are in order of Importance:
1) My Final Major Project –
The Shoulder Armour which is causing me so much stress. I’ve found several different ways to avoid doing this, all of which are on my list!
2) My Personal Evaluation –
This is a part of my college course that is due in on Monday. Illness and other things have got in the way so I really do have to get it done today…
3) The Washing Up –
Dirty Dishes are my enemy, in that I will avoid doing them at all costs until I absolutely have to.
4) Cleaning the house form top to bottom –
We have two cats and two kids. They leave a trail of destruction and cat hair in their wake. As their Mother, I’m supposed to tidy this up…
5) Feed the Family.
Today is Sunday. That means that I have a Roast Chicken to cook. That’s quite a lot of work, especially as I will have to wash up before I can get started…
6) Write an article and an interview for my Webzine.
To be honest, this should have been done over a week ago. It’s supposed to be a part of this month’s edition…
So you can guess what order the things will get done in! No? Well, this is probably the order they will occur in ; #2, #1, #3, #5, #6, #4 – unless I can think of anything else that is more important!
The World of The Teigr Princess 