Reply To: Procrastinate to the extreme

[blackdog]

Do I procrastinate? Um….let’s see…..I’ll get back to you on that…..Someday. 😉

Okay, first of all, you are smart. Don’t beat yourself up so much. Procrastinating on important things is an ADD thing. It has nothing to do with your intelligence level.

You think putting off getting your license renewed for a few weeks, or months, is bad? I haven’t filed an income tax return in so long I can’t remember when the last time was. I think it’s been about 11 years. And it’s not because I don’t know it needs to be done. I get several reminders every year  at income tax time when everybody and their uncle asks “So, have you got your taxes done yet?”

I’ve been removed from the voters list because of it. My husband’s disability support could be cut off because of it. And now I am possibly going to need to apply for disability support myself and can’t get it until I do my taxes. And have I done them yet? Nope.

My employer gave me notice almost two months ago and I haven’t applied for Employment Insurance yet.

My dad died a year and a half ago and I haven’t finished switching things over into my mom’s name yet. He had it set up to be billed automatically for his antivirus software to be updated and I’ve had to pay that twice. And the computer doesn’t even work anymore. It crashed about 7 months ago and I haven’t got it in to get it fixed yet. And I also never got around to cancelling the Internet so I have been paying for Internet service that I am not actually using ever since it crashed……

And that is just a few examples. I could go on but I’m sure you get the point.

 

Now, as for the why, your guess is as good as mine. I don’t understand it either.

I think what happens is that at first I just don’t want to do it. It’s something unpleasant that I don’t enjoy so I shove it from my mind. Then as time goes on it gets harder to do. I lose my T4, I lose the tax forms, I have other things to do, I don’t know how to do it now that I have lost those things….

And then it just gets embarrassing. I don’t want to admit that I put it off for so long. I can’t explain why I did. I know people won’t understand. So again, it’s something unpleasant that I don’t want to deal with and I shove it from my mind.

I also find I procrastinate more on things that have strong emotions attached to them, like dealing with my dad’s death.

Part of it too is probably like you said, seeing how long you can get away with it. I know it sounds childish and silly but……that’s how our brains work. We like games, we like pushing limits, being daring, getting into mischief. Also, I find that leaving things until the last possible moment stimulates and motivates me more. I suddenly have a surge of energy and can get done in an hour what would normally take 3 hours.

Anyway, you are certainly not alone in this. So don’t feel bad. And the only solution I know of is to do things just as soon as you think of them. So get that licence renewed! Today! Do it! Right now! 🙂

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