Procrastinators Love Mondays*

February 21, 2011 in Clutter, Multitasking, Organizing, Writing

What do procrastinators have for breakfast?

Lunch.

Why do procrastinators love Mondays? Because we have an entire week ahead of us to shuffle tasks along on our To Do List. Therefore, Fridays can be pretty grim if we’ve been good procrastinators. While everyone else celebrates the coming weekend, procrastinators face less relief and more work.

Procrastinators recognize we are not alone in the challenge of getting ourselves going on Monday mornings. We just tend to struggle more. I’m so behind that my To Do List has its own To Do List. And yet I don’t feel the pressure I should feel, otherwise I would have left the house hours ago.

Instead, I am still in my pajamas (read: my beloved, overworn Nike sweatpants), picking up the house, piddling, fiddling, checking Facebook, watching the Today Show, (or if I’m really running behind schedule – Live! with Regis & Kelly), riding my stationary cycle, reading a book, eating fill-in-the-blank, emptying the dishwasher and doing laundry. Now I think you would agree that some of these activities are legitimate and necessary. It seems that my problem is that I ramble. I lollygag. I daydream. And I still haven’t made my bed today.

But I decided that a blog post was really my priority and that’s what I’m doing. I realize that I am in need of some serious prioritizing and time management skills. Several intense de-cluttering sessions. And a ream of To Do Lists to write and then check off. I am not 100 percent sure, but I’m pretty certain that I have a unique form of ADD. A lot of women suffer from this pressure to multitask. (However, faced with a pressing deadline I can drop everything else and hyperfocus. Go figure.)

I am constantly looking for articles and books that will help me organize myself, but really they just become part of the problem – more to do, more clutter in my house and more detritus in my brain.

Believe me, I own and have read most of:

• Let Go of Clutter by Harriet Schechter
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh
• Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
• Organize Your Office! by Ronni Eisenberg
• The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

It hasn’t stuck. I don’t internalize the messages. There have been times when I’ve gotten more on top of it all but can’t seem to keep my house clean, uncluttered, unfettered, organized and systematic. Except for the dining room which I insist stay lovely and ready for an impromptu dinner party. Otherwise, every room has its own mysteriously growing mound of papers, piles, bags, boxes and WTF.

What I really want to do is write. Just write. I could replace the lyrics of the song from A Chorus Line about singing with writing. All I really want to do is sing. I mean, write. Meanwhile, Rome is burning around me. I don’t mean Rome, literally. I mean Rome as my life metaphorically.  And, it’s nothing new. I’ve been like this for quite a long time with a two-year break for dealing with breast cancer. But as I believe myself to be cancer-free, and because I have other pressing issues (bills, bills and more bills), then I think it is time to address the issues, organize, produce, and write.

In July, when I first composed this post, I had a two week window with two of my children still away and the oldest one happily at work most days so I had fewer distractions and fewer excuses (other than I am a champion procrastinator with ADD). Now it is the end of February and I have another childless week and relatively empty calendar – and yet so much to do I don’t know where to begin.

And of course, it’s snowing again. So no matter what else I do today, I also must shovel the walk.

Depending on who you ask, one of my personality quirks could be considered somewhat charming. I am an acquirer and gift-giver. A collector of books and other stuff. But as I look around my office, I see many items that are not adding to my productivity or ability to function here. Oh my! Sometimes it takes being away and then coming back to view your stuff and life with fresh eyes (one of the best arguments for why taking vacations is so essential).

When I had done that in July and saw what I may have been blind to for quite a while – and not just the physical space but also the emotional and spiritual space I’ve been inhabiting – I decided that 2011 would be (yet another) year to clean up my mess.

And I have made one small stab at shredding or moving some of the clutter into other rooms. Never the dining room, though. I reserve one space – declare one spot – a clutter-free zone. Maybe I should try taking my laptop in there to write. No, don’t think so. Maybe I need to be surrounded by my books and tchochtkes to inspire me?

OK. 8:29 a.m. No more excuses.  Time to make the bed, get on the exercycle, get in the shower, out to my daily Starbucks latte (or, shudder – make coffee here because of the snow, sigh). Then bravely onto something else on my To Do List. Today shouldn’t be a total waste, even though it is Monday. Again.

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