Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: PROCRASTINATE (08/04/16)
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TITLE: Freelance Writing: Procrastinate, You Mean Me? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Hugh Houchin
08/11/16 -
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I looked up from my dictionary. “Only problem is I already know that, but what I’d really like to know is how come it’s so easy to procrastinate. I mean, it’s gotta be easy because I do it a lot, and I’m good at it. I wouldn’t let myself become proficient and enjoy a habit that’s not good for me.
“Would I?”
I glared as I looked at the definition again and swear it scowled back at me. “Look at what you’d miss if you didn’t procrastinate, uh, I meant to say look at what you’d miss if you didn’t check your emails every fifteen or twenty minutes. For crying out loud, you wouldn’t know until you finished writing for the day that one of the online bills you pay each month is due in only two weeks.
“You want your internet shut off? Besides, what would you do if you didn’t check the weather online throughout the day?”
I decided to see this one all the way through. “Well Mr. Procrastinate, come to think of it, I can keep track of the weather by looking at the curtains to see if the suns streaming through and I can hear the central air running.
“My reply didn’t slow him down.”
“What does a shining sun or noisy central air today tell you about tomorrow? Maybe a front is coming through, which means you need to put your car in the garage. By the way you can call me by my nick name Don’t Do It Now.
“Thanks Don’t Do It Now. You know, you may just have a point. I’ve got a convertible and a storm could wreak havoc with my top.”
“You’re right, and new tops are expensive. I always say be prepared, way in advance, just in case. Besides, as a freelancer, you should follow news and politics, fanatically. If you don’t check Fox News at least once per hour you won’t be among the first to know the latest outlandish statement one candidate made, or the latest lie the other told.
“Just think, if you don’t know what’s going on you won’t be able to take the time to stew about what’s happening in your country.”
“Whoa, slow down Mr. Don’t Do It Now, I’m beginning see the darkness in your tunnel. Every time I quit writing to check emails, Fox News, or anything else off subject I relinquish my writer’s pass. Then, when I want to claim it again, it’s quite the joyride to try to catch up and hop on board my “train of thought” that’s kept right on chugging down the track without me.
“In fact, if the truth were to be known, in the time I’ve spent checking emails too often, I can’t think of reading one that couldn’t have waited until later to read. Like much later.
“None were my obituary, which means I’d have been alive to read them the next day, or for that matter, if they were still waiting for me to read them I’m still alive.
“None of them were warrants for my arrest, so no worry about being in jail and not able to read my personal messages. Honestly, off the top of my head, although I’ve had hearty laughs after reading some emails, in-depth thinking about others, and yes, free lance job offers, overall, I’ve deleted the super majority of them.
“Furthermore Mr. Don’t Do It Now, thanks to your influence and my not thinking, along with my emails, when it comes to news and politics, I’ve perfected my ability to procrastinate by not perfecting the art of prioritizing.
In my sphere of influence, which is most important, emails, news and politics, or article proficiency and deadlines?
“To procrastinate requires the ability to rationalize. I need to reject why I personally prioritize checking emails and news and sports. Thank goodness I’m not a Facebook or Twitter fan.
“Thank you Webster’s New World dictionary for explaining procrastinate to me; now I understand that it’s not fun but adversely effects my writing career.
“The future will tell if I won my one-on-one with Mr. Don’t Do It Now.”
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