Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Procrastination v. Prioritization
A few days ago, I decided to shelve my plan to renovate my closets this summer. While I debated postponing the project, I considered whether I was just procrastinating. Why not just do it?
It can be a little bit tricky sometimes to know whether you are procrastinating or prioritizing, but it’s an important distinction.
Usually, we procrastinate when it’s something we really don’t like to do, or find overwhelming, like taxes. Say you’re working on your taxes, and you get an email about some other pressing issue. Is it really urgent or are you just avoiding the taxes? If everything is time consuming and due on the same day, you probably can’t get it all done on time. To avoid this dilemma, give every item on your to-do list a due date. So if your taxes are due Monday and the Kindergarten application isn’t due until Friday, you know you have to do the taxes first. That’s prioritizing.
Sometimes, though, when we sit down and analyze the situation, we realize we are putting pressure on ourselves for no reason. Yeah, sure I thought this summer would be a great time to redo my closets, but a whole bunch of other things came up that are demanding my attention now and that are more important and more time sensitive that redoing my closets. Closets are still on my To Do list, just not at the top.
It may turn out that the summer you’re visiting colleges isn’t the summer to paint the kitchen, and that is okay. But those financial aid forms, those need to be in on time.