In college, I worked for a center that, among other services, provided skill building workshops for students. Before I could teach these myself, I had to attend each one. I probably had one of the biggest epiphanies of my life during the "Overcoming Procrastination" workshop.
I attended knowing I procrastinate and I figured I wouldn't learn much, other than a confirmation of what I already knew. As the instructor went through the outline, she described the various forms our procrastination takes when it manifests. She started going through the list, and after each one, I thought, "Yep, that's me ... yep, that's me too ... yep, that's me again."
Pretty soon, I noticed a disturbing pattern. Could I really have every single form of procrastination?
Sure enough, every single one applied to me. I knew I put things off, but I never thought to consider what I did to replace what I should be doing. I realized that the first step to overcoming it is to understand how it affects my own behavior. It was in this class that I realized that whenever I had a test or a major project, I would replace doing it with other good projects. As a result, the apartment would be spotless. The dishes would be done, the floor vacuumed, the dusting done ...
After that, every time I sat down to study and realized I needed to clean the toilets, I would stop myself and plan to do it later. It worked great.
I still procrastinate like crazy, but at least I'm a little more aware that I'm doing it.
3 comments:
I signed up for a workshop like that once. Never got to it. Go figure.
haha. Too funny. I am sadly known as the anti-procrastinator. I think it just means I'm impatient.
i'm so glad you blogged it! Serious you siad it so perfectly at lunch that day. Without knowing it, you called me out and all of the kinds of procrastination. it has since helped me become more aware. haha But not much has changed other than that.
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