It starts with a simple “one more game of Candy Crush” (WARNING: do not EVER start playing that game) or an innocent “let me check Facebook quickly before I turn in” and ends with me staying up until the wee hours of the morning.
Yes I can procrastinate with the best of them.
For years I’ve been told that procrastination is bad. That it will keep me from reaching my goals and finding success. I’ve heard that procrastination will mess me up and create more problems in my life. Truth be told over the years living the life of a military spouse, procrastinating has been know to bite me in the rear a time or two, and I survived.
But lately I have begun to see the value of procrastination; and I’m wondering if as a community we might benefit if we procrastinated just a little bit more?
We live in an instant world. With technology that allows us immediate access to people, places and vast amounts of information. So it’s no wonder that we feel like we should be thinking, deciding and living at the same pace. Emails, text messaging and Skype encourage us to live life in a hurry, and our behavior follows suit.
Snap judgments, impatience and instantaneous decision making are rapidly becoming the norm for many of us. And frankly, if we procrastinated a little more I think we’d be better off in the long run. Procrastinating would allow us to breath, feel and even become more aware. It would give us the time we need to sort and come to terms with the day to day happenings this crazy life brings.
Now, I’m not talking about wasting your time and allowing procrastination to take over your life (there is only so much “face-time” a person can have before it impacts their life in a negative way); what I am talking about is allowing yourself to wait a bit before jumping into any new decision.
When we consciously slow down our lives and our decision making process, we give ourselves the opportunity to be more realistic and look at the situation in a slightly different way. By waiting, or procrastinating, we are able to learn more about the ins and outs of any choice BEFORE we make it, which is a good thing.
In this fast paced world of iPhones and internet procrastination buys us some time so we don’t react in ways that are not in our best interest or lead us to less than ideal outcomes. Effective procrastination buys us the time we need to make decisions that will move us forward and prevent us from ourselves.
So as my husband says “Never put off until tomorrow, that which can be postponed indefinitely”.
Judy Davis a.k.a. The Direction Diva is a military spouse, motivational speaker, author and blogger (http://thedirectiondiva.com) that inspires military spouses to become stronger and more resilient “One Moment at a Time”. For Tools, Inspiration and Perspective (T.I.P.s) follow her on Facebook or tweet her at @JDavis55.
