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| Wednesday, September 27, 2006 |
| Procrastination |
It's Ata's biggest downfall. Truly.
For example, Ata promised to do something - that is, arrange a live nativity display for her church in the few days before Christmas. She would like to make it known that she didn't exactly volunteer for this, rather, she was sort of backed into it by the person who was originally asked to do it but thought she might not be in Adelaide at Christmastime and wanted someone else to help. Then "help" became "do" and the original organiser became the helper. It should not be a large task - there is set and costumes available already, Ata just needs to organise people to be involved. It is not even a large commitment of time for those involved - half an hour a night over three nights. If people cannot make the three nights, surely they can make one of the three and we can have a rotating cast. They do not have to learn any lines, there is no play-acting involved (well, very little, anyway).
The problem is, Ata HATES asking people for stuff. Particularly asking people to DO stuff. The current task is that Ata needs to ask the person who has the stable in storage to show it to her, so she can get an idea of how many people it takes to put up and any safety issues associated with have a piece of set intended for a stage inside a church where people will be walking by constantly. As a result, she has put off making the necessary phone call for... oh... three weeks now. Delay any longer and it will be Christmas!
So Ata is firmly refusing to think thoughts such as "Why did I agree to this? Why did Jacqui have to go away? Why are we even HAVING a nativity display? Jesus didn't instruct anyone to celebrate his birth, so I'm sure Christmas is entirely unbiblical. And if we're going to be specific, it should be in a different month anyway. Didn't we plan to go to Darwin in December?" and so on. Such thoughts are Unproductive, and intended to mask the basic issue - which is that Ata is procrastinating about doing something she promised to do. Shared celebrations are an important community bonding activity. It's not really a lot of work. It's an opportunity for personal growth. You're an adult, Ata, so suck it up and get on with it.
It's not just at church that Ata procrastinates. The spare room bed is still piled with clothes Ata took on her last Darwin trip - the only reason they're out of the suitcase is that Mr Ata wanted to use the suitcase. At work, once, her boss asked her to organise some training for her Customer Service Department by negotiating with the sister company to join in their training. Ata delayed and delayed and put it off until he forgot about it. Ata once researched and wrote a 3000 word essay in 12 hours because she'd procrastinated about it until the day before it was due. And got a credit for it, too, but that's not the point. The point is that procrastination is a Very Bad Habit, and Ata needs to break it. Which she will. She will make that phone call, right now. Well, after a coffee. And then I'm not sure if I know where the phone book is. |
posted by Ata @ 10:00 am  |
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