Procrastination

Throughout my life I have been a pretty horrible procrastinator.  In school I would complete assignments, but not before putting them off to the last possible minute.  I didn’t even mind sitting up half the night before I always felt like I was doing great work under pressure.  I also tend to get my second wind around midnight, which makes no sense.  That’s when most people are asleep and resting for the next day.  Procrastination continued throughout graduate school but lessened; when you are only enrolled in three classes a semester you have less of an excuse for it.  Now I find it creeps into my writing as I do things to delay finishing chapters and even sentences.   I think the expression, “familiarity breeds contempt”, applies here.   The longer we spend with our own work, the more our interest in it dims.  We have spent hours, days, even weeks and months perfecting until we are sick of it.  We need to take the time to step outside of ourselves, our work, in order to appreciate it.  When you’ve immersed yourself to the point that you inhabit your own work, no matter how large or small, stepping back can be very difficult.  Life is a series of transitions and obstacles that we traverse and overcome.   Procrastination can be a good thing, but waiting is never easy.