Procrastination

U is for Unfinished: Blogging from A to Z Challenge

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U

I have recently come to the realization that I leave a lot of things unfinished. I don’t much care for that revelation because I suspect that there is something pretty telling about my inability to finish things, some deep-seated psychological meaning that I don’t have the time to unearth. But I do find it to be a pretty compelling “quirk” and I do find myself asking questions. Why didn’t I finish college in time to walk across the stage and get my diploma? Why didn’t I finish cleaning the attic last spring? Why did I give up on Weight Watchers and gain that twenty pounds? Why was I too scared to go back to that musical theatre class?

Obviously, when things are truly important, I finish them. My work gets done, my bills get paid and my family is cared for. Those are the most important things. If I’m directing a show or if people are relying on me, I do my absolute best to see it through to the end. However, if a task isn’t mission critical, it could potentially fall to the wayside or be put off until the last minute.

Unfinished_card_web

The thing that makes this more confounding is that I am a planner. I really, really love to organize and make things more efficient, so why do I put myself in the position of procrastinating and adding stress to my already stressful and busy life? Part of the reason is because I have a very difficult time convincing myself that just because I can do something, doesn’t mean that I should. I’m working on that. Also, I don’t really like to sit still and do nothing, unless I’m napping. Otherwise, I multitask.

This blog is a perfect example of something that lost focus. I signed up for a challenge at the beginning of April to push myself to write something every day throughout the month, prompted simply by a letters of the alphabet. I started off pretty well, only having to play catch-up a couple of times. Then life got busy and I found myself thinking about posts more than writing them. I was two days behind, then I was three days behind. Then suddenly April 30th was here and my blog was stuck at the “S” post. Dammit. Another thing unfinished.

Yesterday I read a comment on that “S” post from somebody who stopped by from the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. She said, simply, “Hope you’ll finish up the A to Z. You’re so close to the end.” And I am! So. Close.

I only have four more posts to go after this one. I may not have finished on time but I fully intend to make it all the way to Z. I will not add this to the list of things left unfinished that I will question later, I will add it to the list of things that illustrate that it is sometimes better to finish something later than to never finish it at all.

The next thing I plan to finish? The hat.

C is for Challenge: Blogging from A to Z Challenge

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C

So this blogging challenge is, in and of itself, indeed a challenge. As I navigate my full time job, being a wife, a mother of three and a foster mom to a puppy, it is hard to carve out time in my schedule to write. This has and always will be a challenge. When you consider the fact that I am also a world class procrastinator, it is a recipe for an uphill climb that when the end of the day comes, I am oft too weary to take on.

I had intended to write about Camp Aranu’tiq, a camp for transgender and gender variant youth that my daughter will be attending this summer. However, that would be a long and meaningful post that unfortunately the Universe was not willing to assist me in writing. Yesterday afternoon, whilst doing the dishes, a wine glass shattered in my hand, shredding a couple fingers and necessitating stitches and splints for two fingers.

So, the challenge now isn’t so much the challenge itself anymore, the challenge now is typing and keeping the pain at a minimum.

I urge you to Google Camp Aranu’tiq. And I promise that once the stitches are out of my hand, I will dedicate some meaningful time to telling you all about it.