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I meant to write this article last week. Or maybe the week before.
If there is one thing I am good at it is putting off until tomorrow what I planned to do last week. Of course, “tomorrow” is in the Biblical, or even the geological, sense. Tomorrow could be the day after today or, as is often the case, tomorrow could be next month, next year, or never.
Here’s the thing: Those of us with a proclivity to procrastinate really don’t need to hear you tell us to “just do it.” We know that. We’ve been told a million times before, half of those by ourselves. We get it.
We just can’t do it.
At some point we begin to take pride in how good we are at procrastinating.* “I put the ‘Pro’ in Procrastination!” “At least I’m good at something.” “I’ll get to it; you don’t have to keep reminding me every six months.”
Yeah, I know, I’m procrastinating again.
I’ve addressed this topic before in Tentative Writing Group and the ever-popular My Precious. [“We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious,” said in my best Gollum voice.]
And still it remains.
Proclivity to procrastinate has a nice alliteration, doesn’t it?
Darn. There it is again.
I’m writing this in response to a writing prompt. But it’s really just another way to avoid working on my next book.
Which I suppose I better do.
*We don’t actually, but we have to rationalize this away somehow.
David J. Kent is a science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
Hassan Zada said:
very nice. i love it 🙂
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davidjkentwriter said:
Thank you.
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estebang said:
Procrastination gets reinforced when you venture off into one of those well-intentioned mornings, and before even feeling satisfied with accomplishing something, get sidetracked into a quagmire of seemingly insurmountable yet tedious details—sometimes involving something genuinely and unexpectedly difficult and sometimes just involving an administrative maze.
Then one really needs a break precisely at the moment of realizing that the tasks should have been started earlier.
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davidjkentwriter said:
Exactly!
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hbsuefred said:
In my retirement, I have been overexercising my own proclivity to procrastinate. Another benefit of aging, in my view!
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davidjkentwriter said:
Hey, when something comes naturally, you do it. 🙂
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