Thursday, March 29, 2007

Ultimate Procrastination

Imagine, the ultimate in procrastination.

You are not doing the million things you have to do.
You do not know you are not doing the million things you have to do.
Therefore you do not feel guilty for not doing the million things you have to do.

Sleeeepppppp! 3 whole hours. Interrupted firstly by "Mummy, K's done an accident on the floor" and a couple of hours later by a delivery man FINALLY delivering nappies!

Of course, I must have needed it, but I am definitely read for more. And now I'm half a day behind, and due to everything else probably even more behind, but I'm not looking tonight. I'll wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I feel old

Yes, I'm supposed to be studying. Professor Fuller of the Harvard Law Review in 1958 just isn't grabbing me tonight like he normally does.

But to the reason of my post. I feel old. I picked up my new pair of glasses today (old frames, new lenses) to go with my new frames and lenses I got last week. That's right, I have two pairs of glasses. One for distance and one for reading. My darling husband (*choke*) keeps teasing me about hanging my reading glasses around my neck. Pfft. Course I have no other solution, so maybe....

Oh, did I mention I'm 26? Far too young (in my opinion) to have two sets of glasses. Although, do you wanna hear the funny part? The reason I now have two pairs of glasses is..... my eyes are getting better. Well, my short sightedness is getting longer. Yes I'm confused too. I have two astigmatisms, and am short sighted (to varying degrees) in each eye. BUT, my short sightedness is getting better as I get older, and soon, I'll only need glasses for my astigmatisms, and not for reading.

Hmmm, one day. In the meantime, I have two pairs of glasses. I feel old.

A Perfect Mess

A fine way of procrastinating is listening to the radio. Not only does it distract you from the many tasks you could be doing, it inspires you to look for more information - thus enabling you to postpone things even longer.

My husband and I have recently become avid "Radio National" listners. Some programs I find fascinating, others leave me cold. One that has recently become a favourite to listen to as I drive 20-30 minutes to Swimming lessons on Monday afternoons for Miss K is a show called "Counterpoint" where the views put forward tend to go against the grain of popular opinion.

Yesterday for example, there was a segment entitled "A Perfect Mess" which those of us who struggle with keeping houses, offices etc neat and tidy might find interesting. It's a book that talks about the positives of being messy and cluttered, and for those interested a link to the article and audio can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2007/1881687.htm The audio starts at approximately 32:50 minutes into the 55 minutes program.

And for those wondering, I grabbed an hours sleep yesterday afternoon, and was in bed by 11:30 last night.

Monday, March 26, 2007

The Downside to Procrastination

I thought at this point I should discuss the possible negative ramifications of procrastination.

Namely the fact that it was 3am before I got to sleep last night. Now, part of it was my husband's desire expressed at 11pm that he have something for lunch today. Monday is usually my baking day, so I had planned to make a cake this morning. THEN he wanted "something else" to go with his ham and cheese roll for lunch. So I threw a quiche in the oven, then a cake. While they were baking I did some reading for uni, not enough, but some.

My problem was that once they'd finished cooking I had finished a reading (and 1:30am is NOT the time to start in on a new, 10 page essay on the downfalls of positivism (separating law from morality) in a legal system.), and started browsing the internet. One of my favourite sites (http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/) is having dramas in the forums, so instead I read "recaps" of various shows. Mainly Veronica Mars. Until 3am.

Of course, that was mostly my own fault. I took the laptop to bed at 2am and read until the battery ran out at 3. I was tired, but not sleepy.

Thankfully, I don't have as much planned today. About 10 pages of readings, already iced the cake. Off to the library in a few minutes, and usual Monday bins, fridge boogies etc., then swimming lessons this afternoon.

Of course the question now is, will I learn from this lesson and go to bed at a decent hour, or catch a quick nap after lunch while the kids are glued to the new DVD we're going to get from the library and do it all again.

Stay tuned to find out

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Procrastination is an art

It is amazing the activities one can come up with that are less plesant than the one being avoided. So far this morning, in an attempt to delay the 25 pages of reading I need to do today, I have emptied the dishwasher, checked emails several times. Posted on various groups, done the shopping list, a load of washing, and now, well, here I am.

In researching for this blog I found the following "creed" at http://www.eskimo.com/~spban/creed.html

1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already.
2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses.
3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration.
4. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them.
5. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations.
6. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.
7. I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitesmally small, is not exactly zero.
8. If at first I don't succeed, there is always next year.
9. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.
10. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it.
11. I obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task.
12. I know that the work cycle is not plan/start/finish, but is wait/plan/plan.
13. I will never put off until tomorrow, what I can forget about forever.
14. I will become a member of the ancient Order of Two-Headed Turtles (the Procrastinator's Society) if they ever get it organized.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Welcome

After much procrastination (ha!) on my part, I have finally settled on a blog that I can really get behind. Procrastination.

I am a master procrastinator, having honed my skills with years of practice in avoiding cleaning up when my parents told me to, studying when I had to, working when I had to, and now I find myself with a family, a house, and study to do, my procrastination reaches new heights of inventivness (example: blog)

I plan to share the skills I have gained over the years in making procrastination an artform, as well as the exciting results as for the first time I attempt to combine keeping a house, kids, and study successfully.

My hope is that you will find my site a useful way of procrastinating yourself, and develop your own skills in this useful field. Now don't come back everyday, I'll only be posting when there's something else I don't want to do. Like the 80 odd pages of reading I wanted to get done by tomorrow. But I look forward to sharing this journey with you