I put the pro in procrastinating!

Procrastination is an excellent word. The dictionary definition is:  To put off intentionally and intentionally the doing of something that should be done.   Should be done – that’s the key.   I prefer to call it displacement activity – after all I should clear out that drawer but on the other hand I probably don’t need to do it today just when I’ve made the decision to write another book.   I’m definitely going to start actually writing any time now.   I’ve worked out the plot and the characters – that’s the hard part, now all I’ve got to do is write it.  I even typed the opening sentence.   That was  when I noticed that my computer screen was a bit dusty. I had a nice little kit for this with a special cloth which was in the cupboard in the utility room.   I did find it eventually, but that cupboard was a frightful mess and it took quite a long time to sort out.  However, on the plus side, all the glue is in one place now and I checked to make sure it is still working.   I have no idea how protesters manage to stick themselves to building – I wonder what glue they use?   I can never manage to stick anything except my fingers.   I’ve just Googled it and it appears that the strongest glues need heat to make them work really properly but Gorilla glue is highly recommended.   I have got some but don’t think I’ll try sticking myself to the kitchen wall – I’ve just had it painted.  While I was at it I thought I would look for that air spray I bought years ago to clean my keyboard – it has definitely disappeared but I did find several keys.   I have no idea what doors they work on – I tried every door in the house, but they are now in a tin marked ‘unknown keys’.   By the time I’d done all that it was time for a cup of coffee.  

Now I feel I have had a very productive morning.   Granted I haven’t actually written anything but I have certainly been busy and done several things that I have been putting off for ages.   Procrastinating about them in fact.   Of course, nothing inspires you (or perhaps it is just me) to tackle boring tasks more than the necessity of doing my accounts.   Trying to find receipts that I know I saw last week but have now disappeared or to remember where that mysterious deposit of £159.76 on my bank statement came from.   Or ringing the insurance company to find out why my premium has increased so much when I haven’t claimed for anything in years.   I am sure there are people – very successful and organised people who get up bright eyed and bushy tailed every morning with a list of things to do that day and work their way methodically through that list, crossing off things as they go.   I’ve got a list – several lists – and there are items on these lists that get transferred with monotonous regularity to every subsequent list.   ‘Sort out attic’ has been on my list for nearly thirty years now!   Sometimes, in order to have a sense of achievement I write things down after I have done them so that I can cross them off.   And the basic items that go on my list to bulk it up a bit such as ‘post letter’ – however I do draw the line at every day activities such as ‘clean teeth’ – it would have to be a pretty empty, desperate day before I added that to a blank sheet of paper and I think might be followed by ‘put head into oven’ – although that would be pretty useless as a) my oven is electric and b) I have a feeling that you can’t poison yourself with gas now.

There are two nice quotes about procrastination and the first is: ‘Procrastination gives you something to look forward to tomorrow’.    And the other is attributed, as so many sayings are, to Oscar Wilde – ‘I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do the day after’.

Well, at least I have a beautifully organised cupboard and I have written this so that is a start.   Now to actually write the novel and I think I’m going to start by putting it on my list.