A dive into rock bottom that ended procrastination

It’s been a long time since I last came here.

Procrastination. That’s all I had written 5 months ago. And here I am 5 months afterwards deciding I really should start writing something. For all I know you might be here to read up on how to deal with procrastination, and I have been in your path so I will just give you 5 seconds to go and Google on how to overcome procrastination. Go on then, do it while I wait for you here.


So, you finished checking out all those thousands of articles on procrastination eh? All those tips and tricks on how to motivate yourself and how you should keep a to do list and make a few dozen calendars and how you have to post them up on the north-west corner of your room otherwise it won’t catch your attention. I have been through them all. But what really matters is not what’s written in paper but in mind.

Procrastination is like a slowly growing fog that dulls out almost all of the parts of your life. It came to a level that I had become almost vampire-like where I would hate going outside in the morning and would restrict myself to going outside only after the sunset. Simply put I had become a really bored couch potato. Some of you people who are reading this would have a few moments of spending their time as a couch potato and that it is perfectly all right to feel like that. Sure, it is all right to kick back and relax IF you are someone who is working through out the clock and have no time to enjoy yourself. My story was different, as I wanted to stay inside my comfort zone so badly that I would do anything to reject that would require me to get out of it. All of that had to change sooner or later right? Well here’s the thing

Recently I went on a trip to the beach to get rid of the lethargic mindset that I had during the past few days. (All right I’ll ‘fess up I didn’t go by my own will. I had to go because it was a family trip.) Anyhow the hotel we stayed at was sophisticated compared to its competitors. This was the second trip we took to this hotel, the first was taken when the fog of lethargy and procrastination was beginning to swell up. The hotel was situated on the edge of a cliff (No that’s not where this is headed. Don’t worry) and the pathway to the beach was through a small staircase made out cement and stone. On the first time, we came to the beach we were intent on only wading into the beach and no swimming was to be done, however eventually with a few unexpected waves and slipping and falling on the sand we were swimming in the sea soon enough. Anyhow this time I was the only one who went to the beach. Now you might be wondering how the great Barnabas Collins managed to push himself into getting out into the beach in that burning sun. And as you guessed it, I went to the beach during the sunset before it got dark and I didn’t go to wade in the beach as usual. There was a pathway near the place where we swam the last time we were there. This pathway was something that my parents said not to take as they didn’t know where it would go. However, the luring candy was that the pathway went straight towards a bunch of rocks that seemed to have some specialty to them. (I don’t know how I felt like that rocks had something special about them, but I wasn’t stoned I can assure you that) I decided to take that pathway after saying farewell to some stray dogs, the only living beings on the beach other than myself. The path was dense with some wild bushes but there was a foot path and I went on forward. As I trudged my way up, I saw a few beer bottles, and further down the road an empty cigarette packet. A reassuring thought came into my mind “Well if drunkards and smokers were able to walk straight through this path then nothing to worry about myself”. And as I came through the bushes I stumbled upon a marvelous creation of both land and sea. (cue Welcome to the Jurassic Park) It was basically a swimming pool!

The natural swimming pool

Now you might be wondering what is so special about a swimming pool, the specialty of this swimming pool in particular was that it was made by rocks and sea water. There was a crevice for sea water to enter in one corner and there was a small opening in one corner for the excess sea water to leave. It even had a small rock in the middle if people wanted to take a rest and sun bath. I felt like I was some archaeologist who discovered proof of civilization, until I saw some plastic water bottles and more empty beer bottles under some of the rocks.

Brushing off those thoughts of dismay I decided to climb down the rocks to the edge of the pool. The water was quite cool and calm. And as I sat there, I realized the reason why I had been putting off all these tasks and details behind me because I was looking at the big picture of it all. I was thinking of getting the entire sea into this small pool. And even after I finish solving a problem I still had it in the back of my mind as I was not satisfied with what I did earlier. This small pool taught me four important lessons to overcome procrastination and start getting a hold on all the things that I was supposed to do.

1. Take your tasks one part at a time

The crevice took water into the pool a small wave at a time. It didn’t worry about the sea. The only thing that the crevice focused upon was the small trickle of water coming from the sea. Often, we tend to look at the big picture rather than breaking it into pieces. “Oh my, look at the size of this book! How am I supposed to finish this by this semester”, “I have so many things to learn and others are far ahead of me already”. Do these phrases sound familiar to you?

2. Success comes with precise and constant practise

Rome wasn’t built in a day (Nor was it built in a night) Precise and constant practice shaped the structure of the pool into the way it is. Perhaps someone piled these rocks up like that in this exact manner but I doubt that happening. My point is, you can’t expect success from Day 1. (Heck, Day 1 would not feel like anything) You need to have faith in yourself and continue forwards no matter what the obstacles are. For in the end with enough time all those obstacles will fade away.

3. Always appreciate your finished work

Standards. Some of you might not give a damn about how good the final product looks but for some who are like me, perfect or near perfect are the only acceptable answers for a product. It is common in a lot of tech companies as well. People tend to focus so much on making their every work perfect that they forget to appreciate the road they had come so far.

4. After learning from your mistakes, move on

Some of us dwell in the past a lot. Past mistakes swell up in our minds without any effort sometimes. “Damn it, it’s that type of questions again, I suck at those types all the time”,” Ah what’s the use, this one will be a mess like the last time” Take a moment to learn from your mistakes and move on. You did something wrong, once, twice maybe even more. But that doesn’t mean you are completely incapable of mastering that field of study.

And so, my dear readers that is how a walk down the beach changed the way I looked at life. Do bear in mind that this experience was biased towards my thinking style. Going to the Galle Face beach today might or might not make you feel like getting over procrastination, for some it might be a walk in a botanical garden even. Whatever it is, I hope you find the passion that you need to go forward.

Until next time,

Janith Chandula Wanniarachchi

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Janith Wanniarachchi

Written by

Author, Poet, Artist, The computer geek

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