Procrastination

"Set me a task!"  

~ This is an early line in Tidewater Tales. The husband is a writer who's thoughts are drifting and he asks his wife to bring him into focus.

I am a procrastinator. On my resume, it is spun as being "deadline oriented", but this is not a total fabrication. Give me a task and a deadline, and I will do everything to make sure it gets done. But left to my own devices...

I have several projects that need to be taken care of. I've had the last couple of days off, and I was able to avoid those projects almost entirely.

Procrastination may be in my blood. Long ago, when my brother plugged in his contact information into my Palm Pilot (remember those?), he put as his job title "Chief Procrastinator" and he has managed to retain that title through several Outlook upgrades.

When we lived together in college, about the only time I cleaned the bathroom was when I was avoiding homework or studying for a test. Today when I should have been working on those projects, I brushed out and bathed the pooch, and then pinned her down so I could clip her nails. I washed the truck, swept the driveway, picked up the yard, cleaned the kitchen and did laundry.

And of course the internet is the ultimate procrastination tool. One link leads to another and before you know it, you have been surfing for hours, feeling vaguely productive but getting little done. While watching tv last night (a distraction in itself), I researched cell phones for a couple of hours even though I am locked into a contract for another month or so.

The last few weeks I have been spending so much time staring at the screen that my eyes are starting to go swimmy, but I'm trying to do better. I am now keeping a to-do list nearby for things I actually "need" to do on the computer. Once they're done, I need to log off.

This afternoon I stepped away entirely and headed toward the beach with only a pen and paper. And I actually got some work done.