Procrastinators

Actually, I was going to post this some time back but I never got around to it. Sorry, but honestly, how could I possibly resist that dreadful line here?

Well, anyway, according to the Wall Street Journal, around 20% of people confess to being procrastinators. I know I'm one. Yep, I'm a shilly-shallying, dilly-dallying, deferrer and delayer of dreary daily duties. Please, don't get me wrong, if it's something that someone else is relying on me for, I will make a much greater effort than if it's something for myself. But, really, is putting off doing things always such bad thing?

While the practice may frustrate and infuriate some people, not all procrastination is unwarranted and not all procrastinators are the same. I think we can categorise them into the following groups:

The Self-Procrastinators—This is by far the biggest group. I'm one of these. Like I said, if it's for someone else I'll make an effort, otherwise, especially if it's something like making an appointment for the doctor or dentist, I'll put it off and off, over and over, again and again.

The Old Aged Procrastinators—I love these people! Generally, they've worked long and hard over a lot of years, always keeping to schedules and various timetables, and now it's their turn to do things in their own sweet time. There's absolutely nothing wrong with old age procrastination. So, if you have it, I say, enjoy it!

The Perfectionist Procrastinators—Sure, they'll get around to doing it all right, because they truly believe nobody can do it better than they can. Only, they consider their time to be so valuable that they see no the point in rushing to get it done, only to later discover that it needed doing differently, or not at all. By doing things at the very last minute they're almost always guaranteed that what ever it is they do, actually needs doing and is done correctly. Maybe this form of procrastination is really a very finely tuned method of eliminating inefficiency.

The Polite Procrastinators—In direct contrast to the perfectionist procrastinators, the polite procrastinators, simply puts off doing everything until it either doesn't need doing any more, or it's done by someone else. They don't really care how it's done, or who does it, so long as it's not them! Then, they sit back and say nice things like "Thank you so much! You're so kind, but you really didn't have to do it!" Only, you know, and they know, you did, or it would never have gotten done!

The Happy Procrastinators—Let me assure you, never before in the history of man has a happy procrastinator ever died of any kind of stress related disease. Happy procrastinators, in contrast to those uptight "gotta do it yesterday" types, are content and relaxed about putting things off. Yes, it's probably very good for your health and well being to be one of these, even if it is at the expense of every other poor blighter around you.

The Control Procrastinators—Now, aren't these almost always of the male variety? They just have to be in control of everything, and that includes their time. Sure, they get things done but only when they're good and ready, and never a minute before. It's utterly useless setting deadlines for them because as a matter of pride and principle they'll always do it later.

The Creative Procrastinators—Otherwise know as the "Thinking Procrastinator". Let's face it, it takes brains and imagination to come up all of those excuses to convince yourself, and/or others, of all the reasons why you should put off doing what ever it is that you should be doing today, tomorrow. It's actually kind of ironic just how busy they're kept thinking up excuses.

The Pretender Procrastinators—Well, it's not really so much that they're pretenders, as much as they just prefer the word 'procrastinator' to what they know they really are, and that's a bunch of disorganised and chronically lazy slobs. They actually feel rather guilty about it all. They'd really like change their ways, and they probably will one day, but just not today.

So, are you a procrastinator?