Dear LPG reader, 

Are you a procrastinator?  Apparently we are all guilty to some extent.  

A friend who is my age and I were on the phone one morning not so long ago.  While comparing notes and, after a bit of chat about this and that, we found ourselves in a more in-depth conversation about putting things off.  Between us we worked out that we are really good at it. In fact, there were things that we each should have been doing while we were on the phone. 

After at least a half hour chat, we did that classic thing where one mentioned that she had to go and what she had to do next, followed by the other agreeing and talking about the next thing she needed to tackle.  After that realisation, we had both spent at least another half an hour expanding on what we each had to do before we realised that we were still chatting and not actually doing very much else.

We did finally finish our conversation and when the phone was down I realised how much time I had wasted while I could have been getting on with the job in hand.  

 It happens to me so often but that day, I did a bit of online research and the internet tells that there are three basic sorts of procrastination.  They are called classic procrastination, creative avoidance, and priority dilution.  

Classic often leaves its sufferer putting off doing what they need to do even though they know what the consequences will be, while consciously or subconsciously finding something else to do that they can put down as an achievement and that they prefer to do.  I was guilty at that very moment.  I was supposed to be bringing the washing in as well as giving my friend a call but that phone call lasted way too long and involved a cup of tea while the washing suffered from a shower and got wet all over again.

Perhaps, now that we are retired, putting things off is easier because there are fewer consequences.  When we older people decide against going somewhere that we promised to go to or doing something that we promised to do the inconvenience to anyone else involved is minimal.  

Then, according to the internet there are the creative avoiders.  Apparently, rather than do the thing that really needs to be done, they would rather find something of less importance and which is more pleasing to tick off their ‘to do’ list. 

Or maybe you are a practitioner of priority dilution.  This means that you just change the order of importance of the things that you really need to do most, so that that thing you really don’t want to do keeps being relegated while less important things get to the top of the priority list and get attended to.

It is interesting that most of us oldies manage to get to health related appointments on time while we are often ready to miss a trip to the lunch club or a meeting with a friend that was planned ages ago just because we don’t feel like it on the day.  I know that I have aches and pains but they can suddenly become heightened, perhaps more than they need to be, so that they can be an excuse for putting something off, if the weather is not a good enough reason on the day.  

Perhaps, when you are retired and your time is your own, there is always tomorrow for doing whatever it is or meeting whoever it is.  As you have got older, how many times have you suddenly decided against doing something that you said you would because no one will notice if you do it tomorrow rather than today?  

I have concluded that it is easier to procrastinate when you are retired because the person you are letting down is most likely to be yourself but, while we all care about the other people around us, perhaps that is the person we should strive to stop letting down the most.  

DP, Lewisham

DP found a few online points of view on the subject of procrastination…

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