Thursday, January 8, 2009

Why Procrastinate?

2 Nephi 17:12
"But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord."

Something that just came to my mind is the pernicious, yet stealthy, vice called procrastination.  What really is the point?  If you plan to do something eventually, and you have time to do it now, and it really doesn't make things any better (honestly) if you do it later, then why put it off until later?  Infact, in most cases if you do things that need to be done first, you will have time to do those things you "really" want to do after the fact.  The other upside to getting things done early is that it also opens up your time and your life to be filled by the things the Lord wants to fill them with.  

Take for example, doing your taxes.  If you see that you have time on a given day to do your taxes, but instead you blow it off for something like.. going to a baseball game.  And then the next day something tragic happens that literally gives you zero time to file your taxes before they are due, then you'd feel pretty silly about not doing them when the opportunity arised eh?  That example seems a bit over the top, but it works in all cases I think.

Or for a more every day situation, doing homework.  You honestly never know how long it's going to take, if you're in school it is one of if not the most important things you have to do that day, why not do it as soon as it's possible to be done, and then get on with the rest of the day you might have left to do other things, or possibly find yourself being prompted by the Lord to do things you might not have otherwise been asked to do?

Procrastination is one thing that I have always struggled with in my life, and something I continue to struggle with to this day.  And I really can't make sense of why I continue to do it.  If you simply put the most important things in your life first, or the things that you "have to do," everything else really will fall into place afterwards.  With technology where it is today, you never really have to miss a tv show or a game because of other things that need to be done first, you never really have to forgo fun in order to accomplish that which you need to get done.  And honestly, anyone who asks you to do something that forces you to procrastinate, is doing you a disservice and only asking you to compromise that which is best for you.

But what causes procrastination?  A myriad of things come to mind, namely: laziness, apathy, misunderstanding of priorities, pride, rebellion, immaturity and so on.  But I honestly think the #1 culprit, even above laziness, is apathy.  Not really caring that something may be important to do now, because something else is so much more appealing at the time.  Not caring about possible future consequences because the elation of the "here and now" blinds us to responsibilities we may have to get important things done now, instead of later.  Apathy towards the Lord in regards to filling up our lives and our "schedules" with things that are temporal and worldly and fun, as opposed to accomplishing the things we NEED to accomplish in the time we are first given to accomplish those things.  

I once heard a thought on the subject that is closely along these lines.  "If you need something accomplished, that has to be done, but you have to delegate it to someone to do for you, would you rather give it to someone who runs a busy schedule, but always gets everything done he sets out to do, or to a known procrastinator that has a completely open schedule for the next few days?"  I personally would pick the busy person who knows how to get things done and move on to the next item on his agenda.  So why wouldn't I want to be that person as opposed to the procrastinator?  I can't think of any good reasons.

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