Wait a moment

Photo by Brett Sayles: Source:

I still remember when I used to casually respond to my mother’s urging while playing games: ‘Wait a moment.’

Waiting for ‘this moment’ seemed like a kind of magic, as if it could reach unseen distances, yet it also seemed to stop abruptly under my father’s anger.

However, this inadvertent phrase has slowly seeped into my present self. Whenever I say ‘wait a moment,’ I seem to feel that I’m not truly committed to resolving the situation. I can’t help but wait for just a little longer, whether it’s about whether the activity will proceed as planned or if the project will progress as scheduled.

In order to break this year-after-year procrastination, I have successfully developed a habit of reading in recent years, starting to gradually complete a small piece of reading every day without realizing it. Today, I happened to learn from the book ‘Hidden Potential’ that procrastination is not a problem of time management.

Let’s agree on this: if you start to procrastinate, it’s not because you’re a bad person, lazy, or lack a sense of time.You simply want to avoid the feelings associated with the task, even though you know that procrastination leads to worse outcomes. But your emotions will still drag you from being the task machine who executes everything perfectly in your mind to the point of ‘I’ll do it later.’ I can only say that I often have this feeling, even I would say every day.

The method I’m currently using to combat procrastination is actually the one I used to find least acceptable.

Breaking down big goals into smaller tasks, planning each hour into what I’ll do, piling them up one by one into blocks, and trying to complete them within that timeframe as much as possible.

Also, I’m not sure if you experience extreme resistance to stopping once you’ve started. Especially when looking at the to-do list, there’s a lot of frustration and unwillingness to tackle it.

Don’t worry, I’m like that too. I still fight procrastination every day. If you really want to pick yourself up, you can check what you’ve accomplished today and think about whether these things are aligned with your desired future.

If they are, that’s great, your vision will gradually come closer with your steps. If not, that’s okay too, it’s time to reassess your future aspirations.

After all, whether it’s tasks assigned by others or the future you desire for yourself, it’s all built up in the present moment.

Written for myself, and for you, who are stumbling along just like me.