Yes, that says procrastiTASKing.  It’s my word. You may use it if you like. What is procrastitasking? This activity consists of doing a variety of things in order to delay doing the most difficult or most important or most annoying thing you know that you need to do. Procrastitasking is not necessarily a bad thing… I mean, I do get many things accomplished… just not that one thing…

You know you do it too. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, there are reasons that we procrastinate. The article’s author, Shirley Wang, found a procrastitasker in London: “Ben Lockwood, a 39-year-old office manager in Chippenham, about 100 miles west of London, knows the feeling all too well. Even though he isn’t a lazy person, he says, he struggles with procrastination at work and in his personal life…Instead of looking for a new job, he might go to the gym—a move researchers call “moral compensation.” That is when procrastinators do something to make themselves feel good or productive in order to avoid the task that needs to get done.” OR… procrastiTASKing.

The same article seeks deep, emotional reasons why we put off until tomorrow what we know we should do today… and suggests that many of us actually need counseling. Call me a cynic, but… hogwash. Those with deep, emotional issues that cause procrastinating have bigger issues in their lives than merely delaying action.

Think back with me to the last time you were heavily into a day of procrastitasking… you were proud of yourself for accomplishing so many things, knowing good and well that you were just putting off paying the bills, mowing the lawn, writing that paper, painting the kitchen, or fixing that rod in the closet that keeps falling down. We each have a different reason for putting off that thing.

I know mine. I can have perfectionistic tendencies. I will compose an entire paper, or blog, in my head, but delay in the actual writing of it.  As long as it is in my head, it’s perfect, just the way it is. Great ideas. Succinct thoughts. Well-crafted sentences. Pithy comments. No fragments (sorry, English teacher joke). However, once it is on paper, it becomes work. I need to focus.  I need to find my writing zone, so to speak, and ignore all else.

Another reason I procrastitask was mentioned in my previous blog… uncompleted tasks weigh heavily on my mind. If I can eliminate many of those, my mind will be clearer and freer for writing.

A third justification/rationalization/excuse for procrastitasking is my need for order. No.. I don’t have an OCD… I’m just organized and orderly. I have a heard that a cluttered desk is a sign of an uncluttered mind.. but my mind does not work that way. I need to have a place for everything and have everything in its place before I sit down to work or write.

According to my calendar that gives me the dates for everything, this Sunday, September 6th is Fight Procrastination Day…. or Just do it! Day.  So, do something. Plan to accomplish something you have been putting off for some time. I guarantee that you will feel like the weight of the world has left your shoulders!

I live in West Virginia, so I leave you with a hearty… Git ‘er Done!