Procrastination Doesn't Pay

Why is it that some lessons are so much harder to learn than others? Are we all programmed differently, leaving some more prone to procrastination than others? Or, a more exact question would be, "Why me?". Why do I put things off, over and over again? I find myself more often than not working frantically at the last minute to finish something. Even when I start early so that I won't be rushing at the end, I always am. Rushing. Frantically. Squeezing some things in and purposely dropping other things off the radar. I liken it to juggling. (Disclaimer - I can't actually juggle, not real objects, and as you will soon see, not imaginary objects either!) I have a set limit of commitments/projects/etc. that I can handle at any one given time. All my other commitments, or balls, remain in a stack next to me on the to-do list. Suddenly, a ball will jump from the list into my hands so I am forced to drop one of my currently active projects back to the inactive list. Squeaky wheel getting the grease and all.

I have no answer to this ageless dilemma. Just a resolve to continue the fight against the last-minute rush. Because then I won't be sloshing through the puddles from a tropical storm so I can take my child to the library to return the summer reading form on the very last day. Even though the form had been complete for over a month. Even though we had been to the library 3 times in the last 2 weeks, forgetting the form each and every time. And I won't be working in my office trying to finish a project even though a big ugly spider has just crawled across my desk. Even though I now have the creepy crawlies because I am sure more spiders are lurking in the shadows, just waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. But I can't leave because I have a deadline! My dear friend, S, has promised to print out my headline Procrastination Doesn't Pay and show it to me the next time I am rushing and cursing my procrastinatory nature. Eventually, the message will sink in, right?

Or am I forever doomed?