Now or Later: The Matter of Procrastination

I think one thing that has so much made it to people's list of resolutions; on what to do and not do is the subject of procrastination. This has made it one way or another, directly or indirectly into such list. A realisation has caused me to analyse that, it almost, always shows up. You see in such list things like, "start this...", "finish this..." and a whole lot of other related ones as well. A close peek into the case you'll realise it's about overcoming the procrastination and "starting" or "finishing" that particular task or desire.

The case with procrastination has become a prevailing order of the day. Incessant dumping of tasks that needs to be completed for some not needful things or activities continues to give it a voice. And so, we find that at the end of the year—or any point in time we come to make assessments, there are those tasks remaining undone. Could be reading a book, starting an exercise, engaging in a new skill, a new volunteering work and the list goes on. The point is, they don't get started for reason of this subject.

It will be needful to understand and realise that one factor that promotes the attitude of procrastination is the fear of consistency. One of the hardest things in life is starting a thing and remaining consistent. It’s one of the hallmarks of successful individuals. So, you can start something today and remain consistent for about a week, then the weariness begins to set in then you tend to give in to "putting off' that particular thing for “later”.

One funny thing I learnt about procrastination is that it will always give you hope for the time and ability to do that thing later, even when you see the clear impossibility. I've had times like such; even while engaging on this platform and writing, that I knew there was a prompt to write on before the day ends but I decided to put it off for later—which there's not by the way.

The thing about this is that it leaves one with a chunk load of things to do in minimal required time. This not because there's not time at all, but because the time available was used to attend to things that should not be. The science of procrastination is a matter of huge repercussions; one which the consequences outweigh the act. That's the deception with procrastination. It comes cheap, easy to act on but heavy to recover from. I'll say it's one of the effortless negative characters one can develop—no energy dissipated or required. Hah!

There were times I had to pay dearly with my marks or time or both while in school. I missed submitting few assignments because of that. Only to go on later and plead for the opportunity to do so. What was readily available is now coming at the cost of plea, and possible humiliation. I admired a course mate then. I'll say he mastered the act of overcoming procrastination. He did his assignments and tasks on time, and was always in class on time. You don't catch him being wrong, all because he didn't give in to that passionate appeal of procrastination.

From him and from life, through understanding and experience, I learnt that one big strategy to overcome the ever-present invitation of procrastination is starting that task while you can. This means doing it immediately when there's the time available at that time. I'll say I'm one who does it this way at times, while at other times I tend to put it aside for later. However, I find myself having more time, rest and ease when I get rid of that task immediately. Keeping notes as reminders can also help deal with this attitude when followed with all doggedness.

This is my entry for the SciFi Multiverse prompt, week 4.

All images are AI generated

Thank you for reading through!