Procrastination

I am the Queen of Procrastination. It should be my middle name, and I believe I come by it honestly. There may be a few procrastinators in my family. And as I was thinking of writing a new post, while procrastinating writing my current paper on assessment (sounds interesting, right?), I thought of writing about the very topic that was inspiring said post: procrastination. I actually googled procrastination and health, and there were quite a few results.

Mostly procrastination is said to cause stress and generally be a symptom of various unhealthy mental states. But I did find one interesting article on Self.com that seems to ring true and (I hope) better describes how I procrastinate. It is also pretty funny.

But I guess what separates my procrastination from the other health articles is the fact that I am never late with commitments (report cards, grades, assignments or any other important due dates), I don't pull all nighters (at worst, in bed by 11 pm), I don't think my procrastination has ever led to tears (should ask my husband about this), and I am always satisfied enough with whatever it is I have to accomplish. I say satisfied enough because if it is something for someone else, such as report card comments, I tend to have a stronger work ethic than if it is something that only affects me, such as a paper for my courses.

And the things I can accomplish in the name of procrastination are endless! Learning a new piano piece, a sewing project, blogging, making a new playlist, exercising, cleaning house, emails, cooking/baking, gardening, shopping, internet searches on whatever topic comes to mind, phone calls to family...and taking endless pictures of our cats (see above).

Some of these activities also provide needed distraction between paragraphs for my papers or research, and that is best done at my computer. A few sites that offer a few minutes of healthy distraction are Facebook for the scrabble game and catching up with friends, blogs (of course!), and for mental challenge, check out www.brainbashers.com - I love to do the crossword, daily logic puzzle, and sudoku, but the games are endless.