Tuesday, October 8, 2013

PROCRASTINATION

Oh.  My.  God.  

I have perfected the art of procrastination.  Here I sit, writing my blog, when I have just 7 days to finish my 2012 tax returns.  Sure ... this year I have an excuse.  But honestly, almost every year I put off doing this unconscionable chore.  Maybe once every 7 years they get turned in on April 15.  Even when we hired someone to do our taxes, I still could not make myself gather up all the information in time.

But I do have some information on my side that putting things off isn’t always such a bad thing!  Wikipedia says:  Procrastination is the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones.

According to Freud, the pleasure principle may be responsible for procrastination; humans prefer to avoid negative emotions and to delay stressful tasks.  The belief that humans work best under pressure provides an additional incentive to postpone.


After 50+ years in Ohio and Oregon, when the sun comes out, inside works gets tossed to the side.  Here I am where it is sunny almost every day ... and my brain still says “go out and play, do the work later, don’t waste a sunny day!”

P.S.  When I went to Mint.com to get totals for medical, property taxes, etc ... they were down for maintenance.  It's an omen to wait until tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. We are so different in this regard! I've never filed late. I wouldn't want that little cloud following me around. LOL But some people do their best work under pressure.

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  2. Oh, Jean. It's nice to learn more about each other! Interestingly, I am NEVER late for an appt or dinner or meeting someone. In fact, usually early which is why I first got a Kindle so I can read a few pages while waiting my 10-15 minutes.

    I hope we can to meet up in real life some day!

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