Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
The Lesson of Sunday
When I was a kid, maybe around 10 years old, I hated Sundays. I hated them because I hadn’t done my homework, and Sunday afternoon and evening were always a horrible slog. My father, who didn’t give me nearly as much advice as my mother (which is probably why I listened to him), told me that he had done the same thing as a kid, and that after he had gotten smart and started doing his homework on Friday, he still felt a little sad on Sunday. So his advice, as I heard it, was to get ahead of that whole curve while I was young, so I could enjoy all my Sundays to come.
Though it was hard, especially in high school, when there were parties on Friday night, from that point on I tried to get my homework done on Friday night or Saturday morning, so that by Sunday I could be free. So much unhappiness and stress springs from procrastination. I see it with my kids (who don’t always take my words of wisdom to heart) and I see it with my clients.
Another problem with procrastinating is that the longer you put things off, the more work you have to do to get them back in your mind. When you just sit down and finish a project, it’s done. When you start and then go off and do something else, you forget where you were and what you were thinking, you have to reacquaint yourself with it, whether it’s a piece of writing or camp forms: Wait, did I do that part? Where was I? It’s the same with my kids. If they worked on improper fractions on Friday in school, that lesson is fresher in their mind if they do their homework on Friday night than if they wait until Sunday afternoon.
Procrastinators aren’t lazy, they’re avoidant. I’m lazy, I don’t procrastinate precisely because I see that if I do, whatever the project is will ultimately require more thought, more effort and create more anxiety and stress.
So log off Facebook, stop binge-watching The Sopranos, and finish your work before the weekend. You’ll be glad you did.