For my last column this year, my editor suggested something on procrastination. This may have been in a spirit of gentle satire, as I’m not the timeliest of correspondents.
Still: it’s a topic in the air these days. All through a semester, or an academic year, or a college career, or a professional career, we say (“we” being the international association of procrastinators), “I’ll do that later.
And I’ll do that later. And that other thing? I’ll do it later, too.”
Then, all of a sudden, it is later. Those things have to be done now, or not done at all.
Now is later. It’s the end of the semester and the academic year; many people are graduating and moving on (to more school, to careers, to the tough realities of job-seeking in a tough economy).
As a lifelong procrastinator I can offer a few pieces of advice.
First, Latin homework comes first.
But also: the self-created crisis of procrastination, when those things that have been put off all tumble down on your head at once- that crisis is actually a kind of opportunity.
The things that people tell you to do: that’s people telling you who you are.
The things you choose to actually do: that’s who you really are.
As you sort through the stack of things you do, deciding what to do well, what (if anything) to do a rush-job on, or blow off entirely, it’s worth keeping in mind that you’re doing more than just checking off items on an agenda. You’re deciding who you are.
Choices have to be made, and they will be made. I’d just say: keep in mind that the decisions may matter more than they seem.
T.S. Eliot, a master of indecision and procrastination, has one of his most indecisive characters ask:
“Would it have been worth while,
“To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
“To have squeezed the universe into a ball
“To roll it toward some overwhelming question?”
The answer, at this time of year more than ever, is yes.
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