Turns out I have plenty of procrastinator friends. Many of them are anxiously looking at the calendar and biting their fingernails in anticipation of the April 15 tax deadline, and thinking about applying for an extension. Others are merely putting off cleaning the garage or doing the dishes.
As for me, I see no sense in putting off unpleasant tasks. When I got the bill for my property taxes, due April 30, I promptly paid it. When I casually shared this information with two of my closest friends, they adamantly informed me that “the government” isn’t going to get a penny of their money any sooner than necessary, and they both admitted to waiting to postmark their checks until the very last day of the month.
But why? It’s not like they’re earning any real interest on the money, and it’s not like they’re waiting for a windfall to write the check…
So knowing they were both getting money back on their income taxes, I asked if they had filed, like I did, back in February, so they could get an early refund. Again, they both hemmed and hawed and gave me about a million reasons for not getting around to it.
As far as I’m concerned, you can have all the excuses in the world not to do something, but you only need one reason to do it, and that reason is the way you’ll feel when it’s done. What a relief not to have something hanging over your head! What motivation and incentive to “just do it.”
And yet when it comes to doing something I really love to do, like working on my next novel for instance, I find myself putting it on the bottom of my to-do list, day after day. I wonder what’s up with that?