Procrastinator, Thy Name is ANN.

Oooooh yeah, that's me. I put off everything! You may think I'm exaggerating, but really...most of the time, most of the things. I procrastinate housework. I procrastinate laundry. I procrastinate kitchen cleaning. I procrastinate getting up in the morning (just long enough that I'm always about two minutes late for work...our company grants us a ten minute window, so that it's not really a big deal and no one is waiting on me to clock in for their lunch or anything; the first two to three hours of my day I'm working on my own...but still....I've been trying so HARD the past year to clock in ON TIME that I get very frustrated with myself).

I am currently procrastinating packing boxes for an upcoming move (which is just craziness, because I've begun to look forward to moving, and am VERY excited about cleaning out a bunch of stuff accumulated over the last eight years we've lived in the Big House. I really like tossing stuff and simplifying and starting fresh in a new place). I've had a whole bunch of boxes sitting in my dining room for about five days. I have tape. I have markers. I have a notebook to record the contents of each packed box and which room it will go to. I have a general plan for the flow of my packing. And yet....have I packed a single box? Nope. When am I going to get started anyway? Dunno. I'll get to it! It's most likely because it is a HUGE and daunting task, and I'm overwhelmed. Yeah, that's it.

I honestly haven't a clue why I am this way (I'm really not much of a navel-gazer unless forced into it). And it seems that I have this innate ability to push starting things until the very last minute that I will be able to get it done on time (yes, occasionally I miscalculate and have to scramble to get something finished). I have, once in a blue moon, started early on a project to give myself plenty of time to perfect it...but I have to be over-the-moon excited about it or very nervous about failure. There has to be great emotion attached. Generally, I guess I'm apathetic about many things. This is not a good thing, guys.

Anyway, I'll bet there are some of you out there who have the same struggle (I really want to say "character flaw" but I don't want to be as hard on the rest of you as I am on myself). Each day I make a plan and resolve to start on this monumental task. Each day I come home from work tired and don't do a thing about it (if only my daughter were here...she'd give me the gentle shove/kick in the pants I need to get going; once I'm moving I have the tendency to keep moving until it's finished...a body in motion and all that). It will get done, just like everything else eventually gets done. I just don't keep up with the pace as well as I used to, or bounce back from total exhaustion as easily. If I wait too long to start, I will be killing myself to get finished. Eeeeeeek! I need to start!