Monday, November 21, 2005

When I Get A Round Tuit

When I was little, I remember a piece of paper hanging on our refrigerator. It was one of those sayings that my father must have laughed at and thought it was worth photocopying (or I guess it was mimeographing back them) and taking home to share with the family, and all who chose to enter our kitchen. It was similar to the "Today is not your day; Tomorrow doesn't look good either" type of sayings. The one on the fridge was titled, "A Round Tuit." Below the title was a definition for a round tuit. I forget exactly, but it was something like a disk that you held on to that somehow magically made you a more efficient person and avoided the putting off of what needed to get done until there was nothing left to do.

Confession: I am the world's worst procrastinator. How bad am I, you ask? Well, I was going to post a blog this afternoon about how I haven't responded to all the emails I need to respond to. Emails that have been sitting in my Inbox waiting to be answered. Plans that haven't been finalized because I haven't emailed back a date to get together. Relatives wondering if I have been swallowed up by this baby since I haven't responded to let them know how I'm feeling. I didn't post about it today because I figured it can wait and I'd get around to it later. The reason I'm getting around to it now? Because I am procrastinating on editing a magazine draft for work tomorrow.

I have to do this magazine. It usually takes me about 2 hours to do and I literally looked at the clock tonight and planned out the timeframe that I would dedicate to doing it. I figured that I would go online for half an hour and respond to emails. Responding to emails, I concluded, would get me motivated to do the magazine. Finish one task I had been putting off, conquer the next. I quickly visited the websites that are on my list of favorites, played a little Freecell (my addiction), and here I am. Over my allotted half hour. No emails have been responded to yet and the magazine is starting to collect dust on the kitchen table.

Don't get me wrong. I do get things done, eventually. And on time. I just wait until the last minute to do them. That's why I think I work best under pressure. I think better and so I feel that what is finally accomplished is better than what it would have been had I started on time. That's my logic.

On the bright side, I guess this could be considered crossing one off the list, since I technically put off blogging about procrastination and here I am getting it done. Aren't you proud of me?

I need a round tuit.

3 comments:

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

You need to get round to posting more.

Only joking.

Whenever you can is good enough for me.

Jodi said...

I am EXACTLY the same. Procrastination is one of my greatest talents. I hope you edited the magazine draft.

Duke_of_Earle said...

Like I said in a recent post of my own: I'm a real PRO (crastinator).

I'll send you a round tuit. One of these days. When I get around to it.

John