I
was driving home the other evening.
Headlights
on, wrapping up a night with some friends. And as I drove, it
occurred to me that I hadn’t watered any of the plants that day.
There are a few out on my deck that I tend to, and I wondered
if I should water them when I got home or let it go.
Before
I got home, a light rain began to fall. Nothing torrential or
heavy, but steady enough that my concerns were… forgive the pun…
washed away.
My
approach to many things kind of mirrors that watering chore though.
I like to say I’ve never met a deadline I didn’t want to snuggle
right up against, but that’s not completely accurate in capturing
it. Sure, procrastination is involved. I won’t deny it. There
are very few projects… VERY few… that I will quickly move to begin.
But there’s another part, where I wonder if the action is one
that will truly be necessary.
Have
you ever faced a task… personally or professionally… where you
just knew that any efforts you invested were going to be tossed
aside? Something where it didn’t even make sense to start, since
there wasn’t a chance any of the results would be needed.
Let’s
go obvious with an example. You have dogs. You’re planning to
do a deep housecleaning. I mean moving furniture so you can get
behind and underneath, and swapping out the tablecloth along with
other decorative seasonal changes. A top to bottom, side to side,
everything in the way cleaning.
It’s
Saturday. The day to do the cleaning. The weather forecast? Sunny
on Saturday. Steady and consistent rain on Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday. Chillier temperatures that could turn the expected rain
into snow on Wednesday. More rain Thursday and Friday.
I
said you have dogs. Does a six-day wet mud-fest seem like the
right way to follow up steam cleaning carpets?
Some
will say yes. They’ll argue that there’s always going to be a
threat of rain and mud and fur and more when it comes to dogs.
If you can, clean. And there’s nothing wrong with that concept
in theory.
For
others, however, the pawprints around the house tell a different
story.
The
twist, I would argue, is found in the procrastination discussion.
Are we avoiding the work to simply not do it? Or, are we adjusting
the work to get a better result? It’s not an easy difference to
spot.
Friend
of mine had a project to do at work. He had no desire to do it,
and kept putting it off. Finally, it was due the next day. That
afternoon, his boss was fired and the project no longer needed.
He later told me there was a good chance that if his boss hadn’t
been let go, he would have stayed in the office most of the night
working on the project, if not the entire night, and likely wouldn’t
have finished it in time. In fact, if his boss hadn’t been fired,
chances are that not finishing the project would have cost him
his employment.
Bright
side? He hated his boss.
Muddy
dog paws. Unemployment. There’s a lot of room between the two
ideas. Still… seriousness and repercussions aside… the concept
remains. Are you avoiding it because you just don’t want to, or,
because it doesn’t make sense to?
The
reality is, far more often I find myself wishing I had started
something sooner instead of being happy I hadn’t invested any
effort to date. Far more often. There’s no real lesson to be learned
there. At least I don’t think there is. Put something off long
enough, and you could wind up like my friend… staring at something
that needs your attention, and now you don’t have the time to
get it done.
So
yes, the feeling of not having to do something can be wonderful.
But it’s probably not a sense of accomplishment. It’s a sense
of relief.