Procrastinators, beware!

Hi, are you a procrastinator? What do you procrastinate on right now? 

Whatever it is, it probably makes you feel slightly guilty, but hey, you’re going to do it tomorrow, right? Or next week. Or whenever the deadline is. 

I know that feeling. I am a procrastinator, too. I could have done my tax declaration weeks ago, and now it’s getting urgent... so guess what I will be doing next weekend, rain or shine!

The tax declaration is one thing. Or handing in that research paper. 

Basically everything that has a deadline - or an angry boss - behind it eventually gets done. But what about those things that don’t come with a deadline? 

Things that we tend to postpone all the time, just because we are so stressed out and postponing them is so easy and seemingly without consequences. Important things such as spending time with our kids, having deep conversations with close friends, bringing the family together, moving to another place or country.

Maybe we postpone even the big building blocks of our life, such as getting married (or getting divorced) having kids, reviewing our career and our life's course.

If we are not mindful about these matters and keep on postponing them, we will wake up one day and regret that it’s too late, because time will have run out.

In this regard, check out Tim Urban's Ted Talk "Inside the mind of a master procrastinator" (https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU). It's one of my favourite Ted Talks. It's hilarious. And so true.

This blog post was first published on 25 July 2020. It has been edited for clarity. 

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash