Share your procrastination story today, influence someone!!!!
We have all procrastinated in one way or another. In some cases, it has cost us, but it does work in our favor at times.
I am writing a book on this topic and need some real-life stories to share with my readers. You could help someone break the habit or encourage them to pause and not jump right in. If you are interested you may reach me on +256 782 028250.
This is one of mine.
In June 2022, I had a brilliant idea that a family vacation would serve us well. After several nights of using code language around the children aiming to avoid raising expectations, my husband and I agreed to start the search for ideal locations. It was just my luck that a friend flooded her status with vacation locations, all having attractive rates that definitely fit within our budget.
I took screenshots of the various options, and now I was officially excited about December. I am not sure where the excitement died down, but I did not call the contact indicated on the fliers until September 3, 2022. I engaged the travel agent with absolute intent to take up one of the packages. In fact, I settled for a package of 7 to Dubai for 5 nights at a cost of $4,325 (approximately UShs 16 million). This was a good deal that covered a city tour, a cruise, and other exciting activities. I had nailed it, I had chosen a location and was ready to start parking.
Life happened, and I got busy, busy enough that the agent checked on me on October 1, 2022, to continue our September 3rd discussion. During this conversation, after being asked for passport details for all the travelers, I realized that I had not thought the whole process through. One of the travelers did not even have a birth certificate, a task that my husband should have completed more than a year earlier. Had my husband obtained the certificate when he had planned to, we would have completed the process at no cost from the hospital. But no, because of his procrastination, we missed the deadline and had to complete the process from the National Identification & Registration Authority offices. We lost time making long queues and unfortunately parted with about UShs 100,000 just for a gentleman to keep checking for us on the progress of the certificate and National Identity Card Numbers for the children. This was the first cost of procrastination that we paid.
Time went by, and I started to lose hope of completing the process in time to get passports for the children. As such, I opened the discussion on locations that do not need passports but can be accessed with other travel documents. By the time we concluded these discussions in November, all my excitement had diminished, and I was comfortable spending the holidays in Bwerenga with my Mother in Law.
Just as I had checked out officially, my sister proposed a joint trip to Dubai for her family and mine. The package was very attractive and we jumped on it. Agreed on travel dates and started discussing other issues such as flight details and choosing a career. We lost time with the back and forth and eventually booked our tickets and applied for visas. We were set and ready to go enjoy our vacation on December 26th. Now I could rest easy, it was done, we had made all payments and all we needed were the visas.
We spent most of Christmas day on our phones, refreshing our emails to check for confirmation of our visas. We gave up and pushed our flight to December 28th. We lost all hope on December 26th, and guess who I called! The travel agent that I went silent on in November. I asked him for recommendations in East Africa, and we locked in Mombasa. Because we were so late, ticket prices were double, but our minds were set. I was not willing to unpack and put away the suitcases and swimming costumes. I was willing to pay the extra charge. A trip that could have cost me UShs 16 million in September cost me approximately UShs 21 million. Imagine what I could have done with that money! I definitely wouldn’t have had to tell the children that Santa Clause did not come to Uganda simply because I could not afford to buy Christmas gifts. The trip became the gift.
That is my most recent cost of procrastination. What is yours?
This definition may help you
Wikipedia defines procrastination as the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. Oftentimes, it is a habitual human behavior involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending a doctor’s appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. Although typically perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one’s productivity it can also be considered a wise response to certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive.
