Procrastination Really is the Thief of Time

Omaha received its first major snow this last week. It was a heavy three-to-four-inches of snow at my house, coming down for the most part overnight. And it stopped by the next morning and moved off to the east. I had ample opportunity to go out and use my new snowblower in the morning before the Nebraska football game to clear the snow. But I chose not to, not wanting to really do it at all, and by late morning found myself sitting in front of the football game for the next three hours.

After the game, I knew I needed to get on it. So I ventured out, fully-dressed in cold-weather gear, and started my snow-blowing adventure. Well, the job got done in about the same 45-minute period, and the basic nature of physics had taken hold. The temperature had risen slightly and then dropped. And if you don’t live in the Midwest, that means the snow melted some and then turned to ice. Yes, the job took the same amount of time, but the outcome wasn’t as good. I ended up spending more time after cleaning up the ice which remained on the driveway and walks.

Procrastinating can sometimes cause you more work and more pain than if you have done the job in the right timeframe, to begin with. Had I gone out in the morning just after the completion of the snowstorm, I probably would not have had nearly as much ice at the bottom of the snow around the driveway. 

The same is true for work. There are so many things we don’t want to do, but we know we have to. Sometimes we just have to put our heads down and get the job done. And if we do, our time will be better spent and our energy more effective than if we wait until the last minute - as I did with the driveway.

My to-do list for the week is complete. I’m going to commit to making sure I get those things done that I need to, even if I really don’t want to.