Getting past procrastination

For the past 3 weeks I have been procrastinating horribly about writing my blog. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I am beyond being completely annoyed with myself. A couple of friends have asked recently whether I've posted anything new. No, I tell them, I've been procrastinating, I add lamely. In a moment of brilliance I add, hey, that's what I'll write about. Procrastinating, it's something I'm really good at!

So here's my list. I have put off several writing projects I am committed to, not made some phone calls to folks who are waiting to hear from me. I have pushed off confirming a training commitment and postponed setting up a meeting I'm responsible for. The list is long and indicting.

It's not that I haven't been busy. We went camping with family, attended a nephew's wedding. I have read some really good books, networked professionally. Lot's of domestic chores needed my attention, mostly revolving around the farmer's co-op and fish co-op that we are part of. Every week I am challenged by what to do with a 15 pound whole cod or other denizen of the deep. I have seen more vegetables that I don't recognize and gotten really creative about zucchini, beans, corn, you name it. I've become a regular Julia.

My dilemma is more about what I have left undone and pushed off. My mother-in-law Zwart used to tell her kids when they wailed, "but Ma, I don't feel like it!" to make some feeling for it and do it. That's the same ethic I was brought up with. Isn't that what it means to be a responsible adult, to do things that need doing whether we actually feel like it or not?

Today was a turning point. I got lots done. I moved some of the big stones. It feels great! I could not stand my own procrastination any more. The weather broke. I moved my computer to the table, sat in a harder chair. Picked up the phone and worked my list. I can't really point to any one thing that galvanized me.

In reflecting on the whole process, here's what I thought about. I read the words of two writers. Both made me think about how to deal with the dones and undones. Both are writers from the Old Testament. The first is thought to be written by King Solomon in his book called Ecclesiastes. He writes that "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven." So far, I am thinking that it's OK to leave some things undone for a while and emphasize others. Then I read from the Prophet Micah in his book with the same name, that this is what is required of me: "...to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God." So that is the criteria I must measure my dones and undones by.

So where does that leave a procrastinating soul like me? Indeed, some of things I have neglected I am guilty about. That has to be taken care of. Other things on my list have fallen to a less urgent place and that's OK. Time for some other things to be emphasized.

What about you? What gets you motivated and doing the things that need to be done? Am I the only big-P wrestler out there?