Friday, December 5, 2008

CC4 - Procrastination

When the Toastmaster of the Evening asked me for my speech title last Wednesday, I told him that I haven’t started writing my speech. I promised him that I will give it to him the following Monday. When Monday finally came I told him that I will try to give him latest by Tuesday. There is only one word which can describe my behavior, PROCRASTINATION.

The meaning taken from Wikipedia, Procrastination is a type of behavior which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. I have to admit, for tasks that are categorized as “less important” for me; I will definitely reschedule it to a later date. Let me give you an example of how procrastination caused trouble in my daily life.

There was one beautiful morning; the weather was just nice, around 26 degrees Celsius after a heavy downpour the night before. As usual I set my hand phone alarm to 6.35am and 6.50am. During normal days, I will usually turn off the 1st alarm, which is the 6.35am, and then snooze until the second alarm sounds twice, before waking up at 7.08am. However, for that lovely morning, my bed was such a soft place to lie in, and my blanket actually gave me a warm sensation that practically hypnotized me back to sleep. Procrastination was at its maximum level that morning; I turned off both alarms thinking that I could actually snoozed and wake up at my second alarm. Needless to say, the next time I opened my eyes to take a look at my hand phone; the time was five minutes pass eight.

I was extremely late for work that day and only reached office at nine o’clock that morning. I felt so ashamed of my behavior that I cannot even looked at my boss in the eye when I explained to him that I couldn’t wake up because there was something wrong with my alarm. After that incident, I vowed not to let procrastination take control over me; instead, I will be in control of my life.

In my opinion, procrastination can be overcome through a strong will power. Procrastination is something of the mind. Maybe you think that the task is not important, so you decided to delay it. Or you think that the task is too difficult, thus you cannot complete it on time. I personally think that once you make up your mind, set a realistic target and work towards your goal, there is no point in procrastinating and not meeting your target. I learnt before that there are three phases in your life, the past, present and future. The past is history; you cannot change it. The future has not arrived yet, you don’t have to be overly concern about it. However, the present is something that you can take control of. So, don’t procrastinate! Don’t let the past haunt you and affect your present performance. Don’t leave it to the future, as the future will have its own fair share of time.

I know it’s easier said than done. I have my own fair share of battles with procrastination. But I guess that is the fun part about learning, right? Maybe I will aim for zero lateness for my New Year resolution.


No comments: