Procrastination is difficult to spell

I should look it up in the dictionary someday when I have time.

“Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.” I have a deep visceral reaction to this line. No! It will be better. It will be better if we do it later or tomorrow. Let’s do something else.

And then I sit for an hour bargaining with myself over whether somehow this time is different. It never is. It really is best to get things done when you can or at the very least give them somewhere to live other than your brain. Then they’re done or properly deferred and you’ve moved on, made some progress, got unstuck. Give yourself a gold star!

Wait, this isn’t only about sacrificing leisure time for work, it applies equally to promptly doing things like rest, play, seeing the doctor, buying someone some flowers, telling someone it’s over.

So now, facing the to do list or the clumps of things in my head that I know ought to have already been done yesterday, I feel that familiar stubbornness gaining strength and yet somehow, I still believe that the best way of getting out of this quagmire is to put off the things that want to be done right now until some undefined time in the future when it will (I really believe) be easier and the outcome will be much better. It’s a lie I tell myself. Why would I lie to myself? That’s insane isn’t it?

Yes, but it turns out this is one of those forms of insanity that are quite common.

What do we do with lies and insanity like that?