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More than 10 years ago I watched a movie He’s Just Not That Into You. The thing that has continued to stick with me from the movie all these years later has nothing to do with the dysfunctional romances depicted. There was this scene where two characters, Alex and Gigi, were discussing how women* like the drama of procrastination. The example they used was waiting until the last minute to pay a bill even if you could afford to pay it right away.
Alex said Gigi loved to live on the edge and was addicted to the drama of almost missing paying her phone bill every month. “Addicted to the drama” stuck out to me and I felt the weight of those words. It felt a little too relatable and I felt seen in a way I didn’t want to be seen.
(*This is what the movie depicted – I’m fairly certain this is gender-universal and men procrastinate too.)
I believe that we hear good advice all the time from friends, family, shows, podcasts and everywhere, but most of it just rolls off our backs. Not everything feels like it applies to us, even if it does. There seems to be only so much room to absorb new ideas each day. And then occasionally, seemingly random ideas just stick out to us at specific times because it’s the thing we need to hear at that moment.
Like, for instance, how the song The Gambler inspired me to break up with a boyfriend in high school – “you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.” I had needed to break up with him for a while, but that song gave me the inspiration I needed to actually do it.
I dispense advice all the time on this blog. I like to share what I’ve learned to help you avoid mistakes I’ve made. Most everything I share has similar themes about how to change your mindset, so that keeping your home clean and organized gets easier and easier for you. I never expect someone to read my blog and change their whole life in an instant. I do believe, though, that if most people adapted the changes I encourage, caring for your homes would become drastically easier to manage. If your homes are easier to manage, that’s a big weight off your shoulders with more free time, which in turn makes everything else a bit easier to manage too.
I know not everything I say will help everyone who reads it. I’m writing each thing to the person that needs to hear it that day. And maybe today, you need to re-think your procrastination drama.
The drama of procrastination is one of these mindset shifts that I believe will make a difference in the level of stress you carry around daily. One of the best things I did for myself was to stop this drama. Now, when something comes up for the future, like making Valentine boxes with my elementary student, I don’t wait until the last minute. I schedule the tasks into my planner and make it happen sooner rather than later.
Procrastinating deciding not to do something: Sometimes procrastination is a way of deciding you don’t really want to do something, that it isn’t really important to you. Instead of just deciding you’re not doing it, you wait until the last minute, when you’ve run out of time to do it, which is a way of deciding without having to actually decide. Or, another way of saying that, you’re procrastinating deciding if you’re really going to do it. Practice making that decision sooner! Imagine the stress and mental weight you’ll avoid by just not having these tasks taking up room in your head, when you’re never going to do them anyway.
Procrastinating something you will do: Sometimes you procrastinate doing what you know you definitely need or want to do. If you’re definitely going to do it no matter what, then cut out the drama of waiting until the last minute. It’s the same to you, time-wise, except procrastinating is stressful and finishing ahead of time is not.
This is like training yourself to leave the house a few minutes earlier than you absolutely have to, then you don’t have the drama of hurrying and running late.
I think some of us are ADDICTED to running around “putting out fires.” We feel a false sense of importance this way. The things we are doing feel more important, because they must be done urgently. But, it is just a mirage.
And once you realize you don’t need the drama anymore, you can start shifting away from living like that. Doing things earlier may not have as much flare and excitement, but there’s a lot less stress and a lot more peace on this side of things!
And if you needed to hear this, you’re welcome.
From my home to yours,
Mary
Thanks for sharing that! Freeing up brain space is a great way to look at it and your right, a decision is a decision. And making earlier rather than later is more peaceful. As for the break up song… mine was REO Speedwagon – Time for me to fly.
Oh, that’s a good song!
Wow just seeing this. And I actually thought this the other day. Iām addicted to the drama of waiting to the last minute. But it has effected me a great deal financially and I think Iām also addicted to being in debt or having no money because I was always told we had no money growing up. Did you have any guidance to help with this, book etcā¦to help you other than shear willpower. Thank you for listening.
I’m sure there are good resources out there, but it’s more little blurbs and quotes here and there that give me the right inspiration at the right time. If you’re able to get a counselor, these things sound like excellent topics to go into one-on-one! I think we’d all be better off figuring ourselves out, and sometimes we need a little help to do so.