DZ-Jay's Random Blog - Procrastinating On Procrastination

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I know it's been quiet around here in the past couple of days. You (if anybody other than myself) may think that I gave up on the blog or something like that, but nope. What happened was the best possible thing for such a procrastinator like myself: I worked on the Christmas Carol story.

That's right! While trying to motivate myself to write another blog entry, my procrastinating mind conspired to find a distraction in order to avoid it -- and what did it find as the most appropriate distraction? Writing the story. Go figure.

Yes, my mind is weird like that; but, hey! I let it get away with it. That's how I get most of my personal projects done. The rest I get done with deadlines, the procrastinator's most powerful secret weapon. There's no stronger motivator than an imminent deadline looming menacingly over your head. If you ever wonder how procrastinators get through college, survive at work, or participate in hobbies, it's deadlines.

Have you seen the pilot of the old "The Incredible Hulk" TV series, where Bruce Banner cuts his hand with a tire iron, resulting in his gamma ray-mutated cells to trigger a "Hulk" transformation, and he ends up lifting the car with his bare hands? Well, that's sort of what a deadline does for the procrastinator -- except that instead of gamma rays running through your veins it's panic; and instead of turning green and muscular, you just somehow get a super-human sense of focus and motivation to figure out a way to weasel out of the task.

This sense intensifies the closer to the deadline you get, with the focus becoming so acute and the motivation so strong, that you will move Heaven and Earth to find a solution, including (and this is the best part) actually doing the task you've avoided for the past several days, weeks, months, or years. And you'll do it at the last possible moment, while marinating in the great guilt and agonizing anguish that comes with leaving things to the last minute.

Don't laugh. I published an Intellivision game, completed multiple projects, and have actually been promoted -- twice -- at my job for (get this) exceptionally high performance. Suckers! If they only knew.

Anyway. That's a bit of an exaggeration. I'd like to think I am very productive at the office. It's not like I just goof off and surf the Web. I actually fill my time with tasks from our own team backlog, so in the end, I end up procrastinating by doing more work than I needed to. That's kind of sad. But, hey! promotion.

Alright, that's enough procrastination about procrastination. Back to work -- er... on the story. Until next time.

See ya'!
-dZ.

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