So my whole life I’ve been a risk-assessing procrastinator. By that I mean, I don’t utterly and completely procrastinate. Procrastination is typically thought of as simply “putting off” and that’s not the whole picture of what I do.

No, I *assess* the risk, first…

  • How bad is the job gonna be?
  • Is there any way to avoid it?
  • Shouldn’t we wait to make sure no one gets sick and blows the plan to pieces?
  • How long will it actually take for me to “get ‘er done”?
  • Are all the steps *really* necessary?

And then, with those things in mind, I pretty much wait until the last point possible to get it done. So I don’t wait so long that it *won’t* get done, I just wait until I can’t afford to do anything else, and THEN I get it done. 

Maybe it’s a form of lazy perfectionism that I’ve convinced myself (until recently) is a smart, respectable perfectionism? 

(Eeeeeeeek, I just admitted that out loud!!!)

But here lately, I’ve been trying to take a whole new approach– do things in advance, — plan purposefully, and try to get things done with time to spare. For example, the last few trips we’ve taken, (camping included) I’ve tried to get everything done by the end of the night before we have to leave, so that I can go to bed with everything possible DONE, rather than leaving a slew of things to do before leaving the next day. 🙂

(To those of you who are planners, I’m sure that still sounds pathetically last-minute, but to those of you who are also risk-assessing procrastinators, you’ll appreciate the purposefulness it requires.)

Here are some random things, recently, I’ve been trying to unprocrastinate about:

  • Mystie’s Guided Brain Dump course has been SO helpful to get everything in my head, out on paper, and start making some sense of it. She has a knack for helping women get ORGANIZED! (If you poke around her site, you’ll see a banners/ads inviting you to sign up for her FREE guided brain dump. Do it. You’ll be glad you did.)
  • I’ve been working to get ahead on writing jobs and commitments so that I can use all of January for a “passion” writing project.
  • Deciding, in advance, about the not-so-black-and-white decisions. I recently wrote out some Jonathan-Edwards-style “resolveds” for myself, to help me make decisions in advance. The reason I wanted to do this is because of gray-area habits (like when to guiltlessly enjoy pistachio gelato, and when it’s ok to veg out/not). Doug says they’re fierce– and, well, I guess I need fierce, because otherwise, when the lines are squishy, I go too easy on myself in areas where I need self-discipline. I used to think Edwards wrote them because he was so godly and pious… now I’m starting to think he wrote them because he was like me and needed some clearly-spelled-out black and white answers so he could make firm decisions based on personal conviction when presented with “gray” options.
  • Cleaning house. Instead of assigning everyone to their own spots, I’ve been calling the troops together multiple times a week (during the little guys’ naptime) to tackle one room at a time of cleaning, decluttering, and organizing. KonMari has definitely helped frame up a proper mindset, but the biggest help is having this many children who are actually HELPFUL and hard-working! Working TOGETHER makes the difference. It’s harder, on the front end, but better in the long run. It blows me away the things we can get done, now, with 4-5 of us working together, vs. just a few years ago, when it was just me, or me and one other child, working on projects like that. {Psst! Moms of only little ones, DON’T GIVE UP! They grow up and REALLY DO start to contribute if you persist!}
  • Meal planning. I’ve been looking at these cookbooks (also from Mystie). She talks about taking simple meal ideas, and shaking them up to fit your family’s taste buds.

I need easy, rather than complicated. I need clear instead of muddled. Especially during the holiday rush.

I’m finding, when I try to “do it all,” I end up procrastinating, but when I just try to do parts (like “Do the Next Thing” says), and tackle them, bit by bit, I do so much better, and we get so much more done. And I’m not so apt to procrastinate because the job doesn’t seem so big. It feels more DOable.

How about you?