Hi. My name is Blyth, and I am a chronic procrastinator.
'Never do today what you can put off til tomorrow' could legitimately serve as my epitaph. I was like that at school. As a uni student, and throughout my working life. Pulling late nighters to finish off an essay or a spreadsheet or a plan or a document that was essential the next day has always been a part of my 'method', followed by that vacant, rumpled, sleepless look the day after. And don't talk to me about deadlines....
(As a fan of the late, great Douglas Adams I was always in karmic sympathy with one of his best known quotes : "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.")
Quite how I was ever a (not wholly unsuccessful) project manager will remain one the universe's great mysteries (or just shows what talented people I worked with, who always managed to achieve stuff in spite of me).
Now I'm retired you'd think none of this mattered any more. But there always some elements of life that need to be addressed in a timely manner, decisions to be made. I'm on a committee, I do a bit of voluntary work, neither of them very time consuming but sometimes requiring me to do things and needing then done soon. Domestically there are always little maintenance jobs, or plans to draw up for the year ahead so we can fit in a holiday among the required festival-going.
So it might have taken me sixty one years, but I have finally cracked it, finally discovering what works for me in tackling the tasks that need to be done, and doing so well ahead of the time when they start to become critical (or at least when I'm likely to start becoming the subject of criticism.... they're the same thing, aren't they?). Of course it won't work for everyone, but if my approach can be of any help to just one other person then I'm happy to have shared it.
All will be explained tomorrow.
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