More often than not, if you tapped into my head, you would hear "oh, I'll do my assignment tomorrow", "I'll save my next paycheque", "I'll go next time". A series of do-it-laters and procrastinating thoughts invade my head and I always end up rushing and panicking trying to finish up my work within the final seconds before it's due. Why is that? Why, even at the age of 20, have I not yet learned that I will never actually do it tomorrow. How tomorrow becomes another tomorrow, and eventually ends up being put off until the final moment, even months at a time?
At the end of my first year of university in May, while summer was still young, I had looked so brightly upon the four full months I had to enjoy and relax and be fed by my parents and made a long to-do list. Low and behold, that list remains untouched and with less than three weeks left of my summer, I am looking at my list in despair. I keep putting it off until the next week, and the following week, and then I eventually end up forgetting about it altogether.
I had just finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin this morning and she dedicates a month of her year-long search for happiness to being mindful and living in the present. I had read a number of essays and books on the practice of being mindful and being a regular meditator, I didn't particularly feel that I wasn't living fully in the present moment. In fact, I was very conscious of living in the present and living fully in the moment. Now, I realized that there was a link between procrastination and being mindful.
As I was driving my father home from work tonight (his car broke down for the 50th time, poor Appa), I was contemplating on this very relationship. If tomorrow never comes, and the past is gone, then what is the answer?
Now.
The answer is now. And like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. "Life is a series of 'now' moments". The past was a 'now' moment, the future will be a now moment, and now... well... you are living in it. So here is the key, here is the solution to procrastination. DO. IT. NOW. And even if you don't end up doing it physically in the moment, maintain the intention to do it now. Somehow or other, that 'now' moment will find you and you will do it.
Now how do I know that this works? Well.. this blog post for one! I drove my father home at 8:55 PM and it is now 9:25 PM of the same night. And I have not procrastinated in writing this blog post. As I have with a number of other posts whose juice and excitement I have long forgotton all due to my thinking that 'I will do it tomorrow' when in fact, tomorrow will never come. Tomorrow is a notion of time that is somewhere in the distant future that cannot be reached.
Do it now.
Don't live for tomorrow, or for one day. Live for now. Because your very life is a series of now moments.
At the end of my first year of university in May, while summer was still young, I had looked so brightly upon the four full months I had to enjoy and relax and be fed by my parents and made a long to-do list. Low and behold, that list remains untouched and with less than three weeks left of my summer, I am looking at my list in despair. I keep putting it off until the next week, and the following week, and then I eventually end up forgetting about it altogether.
I had just finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin this morning and she dedicates a month of her year-long search for happiness to being mindful and living in the present. I had read a number of essays and books on the practice of being mindful and being a regular meditator, I didn't particularly feel that I wasn't living fully in the present moment. In fact, I was very conscious of living in the present and living fully in the moment. Now, I realized that there was a link between procrastination and being mindful.
As I was driving my father home from work tonight (his car broke down for the 50th time, poor Appa), I was contemplating on this very relationship. If tomorrow never comes, and the past is gone, then what is the answer?
Now.
The answer is now. And like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. "Life is a series of 'now' moments". The past was a 'now' moment, the future will be a now moment, and now... well... you are living in it. So here is the key, here is the solution to procrastination. DO. IT. NOW. And even if you don't end up doing it physically in the moment, maintain the intention to do it now. Somehow or other, that 'now' moment will find you and you will do it.
Now how do I know that this works? Well.. this blog post for one! I drove my father home at 8:55 PM and it is now 9:25 PM of the same night. And I have not procrastinated in writing this blog post. As I have with a number of other posts whose juice and excitement I have long forgotton all due to my thinking that 'I will do it tomorrow' when in fact, tomorrow will never come. Tomorrow is a notion of time that is somewhere in the distant future that cannot be reached.
Do it now.
Don't live for tomorrow, or for one day. Live for now. Because your very life is a series of now moments.
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