Procrastination

Have you ever noticed that the less busy you are, the more difficult it is to manage your time? I heard once that if you're in a leadership role and you need to delegate, give a job to a busy person because a busy person will get it done. That is very true.

I went to a time management workshop at the last YSA conference several weekends ago, and at first I had a really bad attitude about it—mostly due to my prideful assumption that I've heard almost everything worth hearing from workshops for single people and I don't need someone to tell me how to live my life—especially when it's a person who has no idea what it's like to be me. Did I mention I was prideful?

The beginning part of the workshop was a little annoying, but that's only because I came in a few minutes late and didn't realize that the presenter had already explained that he was going to briefly discuss principles of time management in how they relate to you spiritually, before going into the practical stuff. I didn't want to go to a time management workshop and leave later having only heard how important it was to manage my time. If I didn't already think it was important to manage my time, I wouldn't have set foot in that room.

At any rate, the principles part was brief, and the rest of it was very helpful strategic information—well represented by hand-outs and a short quiz. Is it weird to like quizzes? I guess it isn't, because even though I never read them, I've heard that girls' and women's magazines are full of them. And I constantly get quizzes sent to me on Facebook, even though I never do them. The time management quiz was a little interesting, because I scored a 25 out of 30, which is the highest score you can get in the healthy range (26 and above indicates possible issues that could lead to burnout). How does that happen? I have come to the conclusion that at least part of it is that I did what a lot of people do on personality assessments and took the quiz based on my intentions rather than my actual habits. Ouch.

How else could you explain my current lifestyle? Positive: I get things done. Negative: I never get them done anywhere near the time I designate to get them done.

The best thing I learned, however, was from the handout on procrastination. It was so validating to read that some things actually should be procrastinated. Said in a different way, I am understanding more and more that finding peace and joy in life has everything to do with getting your priorities straight. Which means I'm going to refocus and refine my ability to procrastinate.