We all know (or should know!) that work expands to fill the time available for it. This is Parkinson's Law, dating back to 1955). However, as we will also know from experience, that if you wait until the last minute to do the work, it only takes a minute. This is the Stock-Sanford corollary to Parkinson's law. But what if there's no deadline? What if you don't do it – what if you just push it (whatever it is) further on into the future? You can't Get On With It if you've not defined what it is.
Tasks that repeat, projects that don't.
What can you put off until tomorrow, or the next day, or the week or month after that? In other words, when is it OK to procrastinate, and when are you absolutely obliged to get on with it? What's the driver? What motivates you? What will happen if you don't do it at all? Or if you fail in your attempt? The one filter through which to pass these questions is: will it help me fulfil my human potential?
I am minded of the kitchen in Withnail and I. The moment when you finally realise that something must be done. A situation that can no longer go on. It's never this bad in my kitchen, by the way. Every evening, I switch on the immersion heater, wait for the water to heat up, and wash the dishes in between doing weights exercises. However, whilst I don't mind washing dishes and pans, I can't say I'm a fan of washing cutlery. And so, if nothing else, the cutlery tends pile up from one day to the next, in the sink, in an empty (large) yogurt container. Or two yogurt containers. [One solution to this is to reduce the number of knives, forks and spoons I deploy. Just the one set, used in rotation, rather than dirtying new ones and letting them accumulate before washing 25 to 30 in one go.]
Mentally juggling the tasks ahead of me, I ponder which ones are most important and in what order I should tackle them, and what the consequences of not doing them are. The worst that could happen is that I simply end up shifting the tasks on into the future. There's cleaning the house (usually, this can wait). There's blogging. The daily stroll (two hours typically). And books I want to read. And my exercises.
Time should be measured by entropy, not seconds, minutes and years. The process of order turning into chaos. Wasting time means letting chaotic processes unfold.
{{ czas chce nas skrzywdzić }} – 'time wants to harm us'.
I'm not one for being pro-active. Sure, I react; when prodded, I respond. What drives me still, though, is not material. It is mystical; metaphysical. I do believe in an overarching Cosmic Purpose. So much of what happens to us in our lives, the major junctions at which we take this turn or that, are determined by chance. We think we have control over our destinies, and yet looking back we can see how much was preordained.
How much we do, how much we achieve – this is determined by our strength of will. How much we push over into the future, rather than doing today. But then on the other hand, avoiding stress is important to living longer. Don't get too worked up over work. If your procrastination leads to levels of stress that you can't cope with, then either learn to let go, or work on reducing the amount of time you waste on the inconsequential.
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The Divine in your life
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God/No God
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Let the Spirit guide you!
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On being perceptive
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Time - religion and metaphysics
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