I've had great success in going toe-to-toe with my procrastination problem in the last year. Recently, though, I had a funny experience I thought I'd share.
For more than three weeks I'd been procrastinating one of those either-way-you-lose tasks: delaying it was causing unpleasant consequences, but following through and finishing it was also going to bring unpleasant consequences.
Then one night I went to sleep and had the following three-part nightmare. Part I: I was fighting with my upstairs neighbor, a taciturn and unfriendly man with many children. Part II: his children ambushed me in my apartment, shooting arrows with poison tips at me; I killed one of the children with a kitchen knife and fled my apartment. Part III: I returned to my apartment to turn myself in to the authorities and found the place filled with detectives, like a scene from CSI; when I tried to find out who was in charge, everyone gave me a runaround. I never was able to get myself arrested.
Then I woke up.
The next day I started the task I'd been resisting, and finished it in four hours.
I love the literal-ness of my dream, how concrete the symbols were that it used to represent all of the different aspects of my anxiety (poison-tipped arrows! Murdered child!). I woke up laughing at how over-the-top it was.
But I also couldn't help but notice that I was only ever four hours away from finishing the task. That's it: four hours. Not that the time involved was ever the issue, but even if I'd only spent fifteen minutes a day on it I still would have been done in less than three weeks.
For more than three weeks I'd been procrastinating one of those either-way-you-lose tasks: delaying it was causing unpleasant consequences, but following through and finishing it was also going to bring unpleasant consequences.
Then one night I went to sleep and had the following three-part nightmare. Part I: I was fighting with my upstairs neighbor, a taciturn and unfriendly man with many children. Part II: his children ambushed me in my apartment, shooting arrows with poison tips at me; I killed one of the children with a kitchen knife and fled my apartment. Part III: I returned to my apartment to turn myself in to the authorities and found the place filled with detectives, like a scene from CSI; when I tried to find out who was in charge, everyone gave me a runaround. I never was able to get myself arrested.
Then I woke up.
The next day I started the task I'd been resisting, and finished it in four hours.
I love the literal-ness of my dream, how concrete the symbols were that it used to represent all of the different aspects of my anxiety (poison-tipped arrows! Murdered child!). I woke up laughing at how over-the-top it was.
But I also couldn't help but notice that I was only ever four hours away from finishing the task. That's it: four hours. Not that the time involved was ever the issue, but even if I'd only spent fifteen minutes a day on it I still would have been done in less than three weeks.
