Procrastination Creates More Stress

Procrastination Creates More Stress

Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring. Proverbs 27:1

During an especially stressful season, our editorial office displayed a silly poster with drawings of various-sized frogs. The caption said, “If you have to eat a lot of frogs, eat the biggest one first.” The point was, of course, we were to tackle the big assignments right away. Once those were completed, the smaller ones would seem effortless.

What if we applied that philosophy to our daily tasks and to our ever-present to-do lists? After all, usually the worst thing about a chore is dreading it. So, how long will it take to complete? Thirty minutes? Four hours? A week? If I add that amount of time to all of the hours I worry about a project, dread it, and wonder why I ever agreed to do it, I will have doubled if not tripled the time it originally would have taken.

Not only does procrastination create stress, but it can also cause us to engage in unhealthy activities instead of jumping into the work. Sometimes we eat too much. Sometimes we go shopping. Some folks decide to have another glass of wine. Sometimes we get busy with other worthwhile projects—just not the one we should be spending our time on. If I am sweeping the garage or making fudge when my adult children stop over, they’ll say, “Writing not going well today, huh?” And they’re usually right.

So let’s stop dreading tasks and start doing them. Sure beats eating frogs!

—SANDRA

Lord, I do waste time worrying about a project, a household chore, an unwritten note. Help me to ask for your help and then jump into the task. I’m tired of wasting energy on dread.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

—WILLIAM JAMES (1842–1910), AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST AND PHILOSOPHER