Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Help for Procrastinators

It’s so easy to procrastinate, isn’t it? To put it on the back burner, to put it on the bottom of our to-do list, or to just ignore it altogether.

It’s easy to put off the hard stuff. To put off the stuff we don’t like to do. Maybe we put off talking to certain people we’re uncomfortable with.

Procrastination is considered fairly acceptable in our culture.

We even have sayings like “I work well under pressure” which usually means “I like to procrastinate.”

There’s the saying “Pressure makes diamonds.” It also makes things explode.

Someone said: “My mother always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything because I procrastinate. I said, ‘Just wait.’ ”

Or “Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday.”

In teaching at our Christian school, I often have students who are proud of their procrastination. They say things like: “I’m good at cramming. Why spend a week working on something I can do the night before?”

Maybe we think, “Well, it’s just a quirk in my personality. People need to give me a break.” But procrastination is a serious problem that can affect almost every area of your life.