Mr. Procrastination

I suffer from procrastination.

I didn’t really suffer from it when I was employed because I had deadlines placed upon me, which I didn’t appreciate at the time, but I certainly do miss them now. I became self-employed in 2024 and started off with great momentum – finally, I could be the captain of my own destiny.

I spent hours planning, getting my office set up and making tea. Then, when it was time to pull the trigger, and do the actual work, I suddenly met Mr. Procrastination.

He appeared out of the corner of my eye, next to the shoe cupboard, which is always a mess because of my family’s insane number of shoes (I only have three pairs of footwear like all good men should have). Thankfully, this area of the house has a door, so I don’t see it that often, but Mr. Procrastination just stood there, looking down at the number of items scattered on the floor. And then, just like that, I felt a surge of energy and a determination to tidy this area up. It took me about one hour to complete the cleanup after which I felt very proud of myself for finally tackling this unsightly area. I even made myself a nice cup of tea to celebrate. However, the feeling didn’t last long because when I returned to my desk to start work, I realised it was time to pick the kids up from school.

No creative output from me on that day.

Mr. Procrastination has been visiting me daily since that introduction weeks ago. He appears just as I am getting down to do work. His gaze hovers over the areas that need my attention and before I know it, I'm out of my seat and find myself cleaning the kitchen, reading sections of the newspaper that I didn’t know existed, checking my pension and organising my desk. Each night I have an internal conversation about how tomorrow is going to be better and I'm finally going to stand up to my distractor, Mr. Procrastination. Well, it’s taken a while but today I ignored Mr. P and published this post. A tiny step but writing 400 words feels like a big deal because I’ve created something.

Let’s see if I can keep this momentum going and start writing more posts for Pendulum of Change.