Procrastination

Yesterday was my turn to blog. I had been thinking about my subject for a week and found a great topic in a something sent to me on We, the People. I agreed with its tenets and made a couple of quick notes on thoughts it generated: We are intelligent enough to make our own decisions. We do not need the government to make them for us. Freedom of choice is one of our most cherished ideals in America. We believe that self-reliance and individual achievement are necessary to make our way in this world.

Then I received another e-mail from a former counselor when I was Relief Society president, so she had good reason to forward this particular column written by Janice Kapp Perry. (She knows me well.) I thought that would be the perfect subject since I think we all share some of those feelings.

Sister Perry told of writing "Do Not Run Faster" and experiences with that song. The first verse goes like this:
I thought that I could do it all
Complete each task, accept each call
I never felt my work was done
Until I had pleased everyone
I told myself I must be strong
Be there for all to lean upon
But in the end I came to see
That's more than God requires of me. He has said:

Do not run faster than you have strength
If you grow weary, what have you gained?
You will have wisdom and strength enough
If first you remember to fill your own cup. Comforting words of the Master: Do Not run faster than you have strength.

As I am vacillating between those subjects, I continue working on my to-do list, go visiting teaching, run errands, put groceries away, fix lunch for my husband. The blog deadline is weighing heavily upon my mind, but I received a special offer from Shutterfly for 30% off a photo book, buy one and get one 50% off. I'd never seen that great deal before. I ought to take advantage of it to make a book of our family reunion in Bear Lake and give one to my daughter. But I needed to download my pictures from a camera clip (hadn't done it yet since I needed some help from my daughter, Shelley, to undo what she had done to my picture file.)

My good husband said he would see if he would figure out how to put it back the way I had it, so we spent an hour working on it. Finally succeeded in tweaking it so I could put my pictures, Nikki's, and Glenn's sister's pictures in one file, then discovered the thumb drive on which I had copied Nikki and Nancy's pictures also contained over 3500 pictures from our China trip. How did that happen?

Computer expert that I am (NOT) I spent the next two hours working on separating the files and getting the pictures where I could work with them on Shutterfly. And suddenly it was 3:30 and time to fix dinner. (Our dinner hour is 4:00 as we are very early risers - my breakfast is at 6:00.) Now my day is gone. I accomplish very little after dinner because that is time with my husband. And I'm still burdened with the blog I haven't written - or even decided upon the subject.

I won't mention that I'm a couple of days behind on my journal, have a stack of requests for money (political, charitable, etc.) that is unbelievable, practice the songs for a baptism and the hymns for Sunday, and five other things on my to-do list that I REALLY needed to accomplish before the sun went down (which is way too early these days!)

As I lay in bed at 4:00 this morning, I thought how wonderful it would be to just stay there, snuggled under the blankets and go back to sleep. I could procrastinate doing the blog another couple of hours - since I hadn't made up my mind yet which worthy topic I should tackle. But I knew I'd be at least a week behind on my to-do list if I didn't get this done this morning before everything else crowded in. So I crawled out of bed reluctantly, did my scripture study, and as I turned to my desk to face the dreaded task, the word PROCRASTINATOR came to mind. That was it!

Elder Neal A. Maxwell called it one of the most cruel games one can play with yourself - the "not yet" game. He also said, "One can play upon the harp strings of hesitations and reservations just so long."

Don Marquis, an American poet and journalist in the early 1900's, said: "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." Oh, yes!

And finally, Proverbs tells us that "Procrastination is the thief of time."

I might also add that it is the thief of peace of mind. There. Now I am done and I can finish preparing my Laurel lesson for tomorrow and get to the rest of my list. How good it feels to not be procrastinating any longer!