And... SUCCESS!

Hold the presses! I accomplished something! Good God, it didn't seem like I was going to get anything done today. But I have written THREE recommendation letters (pauses for applause). Time spent dreading writing these letters: 3 weeks. Time spent writing these letters: 1 hour. I will never learn, will I?

Procrastination has been with me since I was a kid. I remember lying awake at 1:30 a.m. being paralyzed with fear because I had a book report due the next week, and I had yet to begin reading the book. I was in fourth grade. That was 24 years ago. Yet, I remain persistent in the procrastination.

Also, I have never been good at time management. I have no idea how long it will take me to do something. Like that book in fourth grade. I could have read it in one afternoon. (Actually, if I remember correctly, I DID read it in one afternoon and wrote the book report that night--after my bedtime) But I thought it would take me DAYS to read it. So I dreaded it.

I do the same thing with lesson plans. I never know how long it will take me to plan a lesson--or to plan the semester, for that matter. So, I dread it, and I agonize over it, envisioning this mammoth project that will eat up an entire day. But when I actually begin planning, it only takes a few hours of concentrated effort.

The first step to recovery is admitting I have a problem, right? Is there a 12 step program for Procrastination? (see, it is so prominent in my life that I had to capitalize it!)