I have reached the humbling stage of realising that I need to learn a lesson from my eldest daughter.
Angel has a ridiculously busy life. When she started attending school we decided to let her continue her various extra curricular activities and then scale down if necessary. Not only did it turn out not to be necessary, but she added in various school related activities and homework. Not to mention a full week at school, which takes up considerably more hours than we spent homeschooling. And somehow she fits it all in, apparently effortlessly.
A few days ago I was chatting with her best friend, J-next-door ... "How does she do it? The rest of us have to say no to things as we have homework to do - but she's already done it! How does she fit in all that dance and other stuff and still get everything done?"
That got me thinking. Angel's current extracurricular activity list is: six dance classes; after-school athletics club; town athletics club; school talent show rehearsal; rehearsal for end-of-term musical; two band practices. Not to mention Mass on Sunday and time hanging out with her friends. How does she do it?
Then I realised the answer. She does not procrastinate. If something need doing, she gets on and does it. If she has a spare twenty minutes and some outstanding homework, she whizzes through as much as she can in the time. No fuss, no bother; just efficient use of time.
Me? I am a mistress of procrastination. If I don't want to do something I put it off. I allow myself to be distracted. And then I berate myself for not getting it done.
Can I learn the lesson?
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Procrastination
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
if you do figure out how to beat the procrastination bug, please let me know how it's done. I've been fighting it all my life and so far it's all been one miserable failure after another.
Ugh! You and me both. I do think there is a strong "nature" element - her dad is the same. They both get on and do while DD2 and I dither. But it is rather startling seeing close up just how much even a 13yo can achieve by being focused and not procrastinating. If she can do it, I ought to at least be able to do better!
That's so wonderful that Angel has that gift! I'm a procrastinator. And I had a light bulb moment last week that I keep waiting for big chunks of time to finish or start some projects...hence they are never getting done. Perhaps every other mom has figured this out, but it just now occurred to me that those big chunks of uninterrupted, nobody needing me moments aren't going to happen for another few decades. So I need to find a way to be more efficient in smaller increments of time, and be able to start and stop at various times.
I don't know how to do it. But finally seeing what I was waiting for sure does help analyze the problem!
Post a Comment