Please tell me tomorrow

You won’t believe this but I started this post weeks ago. And guess what? I put off writing it. Hmm. Why is it that someone who loves to mark completed tasks off a list or plow through a month’s worth of housecleaning in one morning cannot write a simple blog about procrastination without procrastinating like hell? I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Update 7/19/08 I thought I was done with this throwaway post, until not once but twice, Martin asked me about it. It’s tomorrow, he said, So when are you going to finish it? he asked me, or words to that effect.

The original blog was a little nothing based on an old joke: How do you keep an idiot in suspense? I’ll tell you tomorrow. But after Martin asked me about it, I started thinking about procrastination and what makes me put off doing things I know I should be doing and in some cases, actually want to be doing. The short answer is I don’t know. It seems to depend on my mood. If I am in a good mood, I will take on tasks both pleasant and unpleasant like a whirling dervish. If I’m down, nothing will get done over the weekend except the essentials: laundry and cooking something that will last for a few meals.

What’s funny is for the past couple of years, I work out regularly and never voluntarily miss my daily workout routines. It takes illness or vacation or some other disruption to prevent me from getting my dose of endorphins. So why is it I can power-walk four miles but can’t manage to empty the dishwasher? If you can answer that question, please let me know tomorrow.