We Put the “Pro” in Procrastination

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Who knew that this quip would set the tone for the rest of my life?

I have a lot of bad habits, like chewing my fingernails and sitting cross-legged no matter where I am (including restaurants, work, and church pews). Some bad habits, however, were definitely cultivated. I think my time at La Sierra University, and specifically at South Hall, really developed my ability to procrastinate and procrastinate well. In fact, I think it’s set me up to be a procrastinator for life.

At work now, I have to deal with deadlines again. Before, as a trainer, all I really had to do was show, “perform,” and clean up. Now, I have to read, process what I read, develop, and write and then send it out for multiple reviews where it is almost certain that your document will return in a mangled form, barely recognizable as the document you first submitted for review. I had my first hard deadline yesterday. W00t! PROCRASTINATION! My job is to re-write an already existing curriculum, BUT I spent so much time reading the stuff that already existed, that I ran out of time! In the end, I had 3 days to re-write the 100-page document.

I ended up working a little on the weekend and then staying up until 1:30 am the night before it was due. The morning after that was *not* pretty! It even began with a bad omen. I was exiting my parking lot, but it’s difficult to see oncoming cars, so I slowly peeked my car out into the street. There was a car about 6 car-lengths away heading my way and honking and honking. I couldn’t even tell what he was honking at. I rolled back a little in case my car was making him nervous even though he had plenty of room to pass. As he rolled slowly past my car, the old Russian man leaned out of his window screaming angrily at me, “STOOOOOOOOOOOOPEEEEEEEED! STOOOOOOOOOOOOPEEEEEEED!” while his wife looked on in wonder.

Hmmmmmm...not a good beginning for the day.

Despite the rocky start, I hammered out my document and finished by 1 pm. PHEW! YES! I’M DONE!

...and then I had a talk with my manager afterwards where he said, “Congrats! Good work! Now let me give you about 7 more other deadlines coming up in very close succession!” This is gonna be my life for the next 2 months.

T___T

I think I’m gonna cry. 

1. I know.  I KNOW!  I can’t seem to embrace productivity, either.  If it helps, it’s not a choice.  This is just what we have to do to eat, sleep, and clothe ourselves.  We can still be lazy inside.

   Posted by  on  01/15  at  12:50 PM