By default, I'm a rather bad procrastinator. I'm prone to leaving things to the very last minute (and beyond), sometimes to the point of forgetting all together.
It's irritating. Just ask my husband. I don't like it myself.
And I'm not always as bad as I've been this year. Some years I'm pretty good at getting out birthday gifts on time and tackling my to do list within a reasonable time frame. Sometimes I go through absolute fits of organization and control where I actually send cards out early and remember to go shopping well before a birthday.
Not this year.
I'd like to chalk that up to returning to work, finishing my graduate degree, and trying to balance family life during all of that. And when I type it out, I think, "Wow. That does sound like a reasonable batch of circumstances for becoming such a slacker." Except that I know I'm prone to being a slacker to begin with and the addition of these outside factors only exacerbated the problem.
I finished up my degree in June, but it's been difficult pulling myself out of the habit of putting everything off just one more month. But following my husband's eye surgery, it's become necessary to address my demons. The biggest one of all: my ever-increasing pile of things to mail out.
Is anyone else really, really bad at mailing things? If I don't mail something out the DAY I think about it, I may not mail it out for a year. Literally.
So I'm currently preparing for the Great Mass Mail-Out of 2009. If I don't do it now, before Christmas rapidly approaches, I may soon die in a pile of envelopes and postage stamps.
In this beast of a pile are things I'm embarrassed to admit I've never mailed out. A birthday present for my friend's girls that I purchased last summer. They've both since had another birthday since then. (Kristy, it'll be on it's way Tuesday!) The sad thing is, they were actually in the same country as me this time last year! I could have given it directly to them, not just at the time of their birthday, but for about six months after that until they moved!
I've also got pictures of Caleb taken at school from April. But really, that's not so bad. That's not bad at all. I've also got pictures of Caleb taken from August...of last year! Awful, I know. My mom said I may as well not even send them out now. But I paid for them, darnit! I paid for them with the idea that I would send them out to certain people. By golly, those people are going to get year-old pics of my son, whether they want them or not at this point!
The idea is that if I can get over this ginormous obstacle of mail, I can become better. Right? If I just put this past behind me (you know, the past I'm still holding onto 13 months later) then I can get a better grasp on the present and be more prepared for the future. I have to believe I can get a grasp on this situation before it takes over my life.
And I'm getting there. I've sorted the pics, written the thank you notes, picked out the birthday cards, and am very nearly done addressing the whole stack. In the mean time, I'm just trying not to think about how much postage will cost when I mail this out this week!
It's irritating. Just ask my husband. I don't like it myself.
And I'm not always as bad as I've been this year. Some years I'm pretty good at getting out birthday gifts on time and tackling my to do list within a reasonable time frame. Sometimes I go through absolute fits of organization and control where I actually send cards out early and remember to go shopping well before a birthday.
Not this year.
I'd like to chalk that up to returning to work, finishing my graduate degree, and trying to balance family life during all of that. And when I type it out, I think, "Wow. That does sound like a reasonable batch of circumstances for becoming such a slacker." Except that I know I'm prone to being a slacker to begin with and the addition of these outside factors only exacerbated the problem.
I finished up my degree in June, but it's been difficult pulling myself out of the habit of putting everything off just one more month. But following my husband's eye surgery, it's become necessary to address my demons. The biggest one of all: my ever-increasing pile of things to mail out.
Is anyone else really, really bad at mailing things? If I don't mail something out the DAY I think about it, I may not mail it out for a year. Literally.
So I'm currently preparing for the Great Mass Mail-Out of 2009. If I don't do it now, before Christmas rapidly approaches, I may soon die in a pile of envelopes and postage stamps.
In this beast of a pile are things I'm embarrassed to admit I've never mailed out. A birthday present for my friend's girls that I purchased last summer. They've both since had another birthday since then. (Kristy, it'll be on it's way Tuesday!) The sad thing is, they were actually in the same country as me this time last year! I could have given it directly to them, not just at the time of their birthday, but for about six months after that until they moved!
I've also got pictures of Caleb taken at school from April. But really, that's not so bad. That's not bad at all. I've also got pictures of Caleb taken from August...of last year! Awful, I know. My mom said I may as well not even send them out now. But I paid for them, darnit! I paid for them with the idea that I would send them out to certain people. By golly, those people are going to get year-old pics of my son, whether they want them or not at this point!
The idea is that if I can get over this ginormous obstacle of mail, I can become better. Right? If I just put this past behind me (you know, the past I'm still holding onto 13 months later) then I can get a better grasp on the present and be more prepared for the future. I have to believe I can get a grasp on this situation before it takes over my life.
And I'm getting there. I've sorted the pics, written the thank you notes, picked out the birthday cards, and am very nearly done addressing the whole stack. In the mean time, I'm just trying not to think about how much postage will cost when I mail this out this week!
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