Random Ramblings of a Reluctant Blogger

Procrastinators of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your reputation. 

This clarion call to my fellow procrastinators has been in the pipeline for long, understandably so. The call,  not so much as  to give up an admirable yet misunderstood trait, but to set the record straight.

A procrastinator is not lazy. The synonyms like sluggard, lazybones, idler and such are more of a myth, a myth perpetuated by the ‘doers’, that needs to be shown the mirror.

It is about perspective. For the ‘doers’ (so called for the lack of any other word) view time as a linear component. Hours, minutes, seconds and microseconds. That’s what they let themselves be ruled by. Everything has to be done then and there, within the constraints of a device they invented to define time, called  clock. The procrastinators, on the other hand, believe more in the relative concept of time as  a vast expanse. 

A pile of washed clothes are lying beside my bed. They ought to have been ironed and placed in the designated slot a couple of days back. They are still around. And not because of laziness. Come to think of it, in the grand theme of the universe, the Earth itself is just a speck of dust, so how does a pile of clothes lying around for a week matter? It will eventually get done when it is done.

That’s how a procrastinator views things. The procrastinators, in tune with the relative time concept, are great adherents of the eleventh hour. The magical eleventh hour, wherein everything falls in place with relative ease. When the eleventh hour is around, why is there an illogical rush to complete tasks before it?

One of the facets not often highlighted is creativity. In fact creativity is as much the cause as the effect of procrastination. A procrastinator will spend his hours, apart from the eleventh one, in a meaningful thought process. The, ‘doers’ are bound to deride it using words like daydreaming. But what does the  ‘doer’ know apart from doing?

The creativity that flows from a procrastinator’s ‘procrastinating’ hour is what has helped the world become a better place. Had the procrastinator not spent his  time wondering how to get things done with ease, many of the gadgets we have wouldn’t have been around! And in a side note,  this blog which I am subjecting you to, is also a product of creativity that bloomed while procrastinating.

That’s just a material benefit. We contribute to world peace too.  A procrastinator has much more equipoise, than a ‘doer’. Given that we know things happen when they happen we have a better grip on  the pace of things. Thus flustered we hardly are and thus less strife. The pile of clothes that I have mentioned doesn’t trouble me whatsoever. For I know it will get done. 

And then we contribute a lot to the environment too, and that too without shouting, or crying for the cameras. Take the pile of clothes that has been lying beside my bed. All I need to do is pick one on a particular day, iron it and wear it. Think of the amount of power I saved by not ironing the whole bunch, which would have to be re-ironed when going out. The carbon footprint I thus saved has contributed to the Earth’s cause.

Hardened that we are, all the barbs, which constitute most of the synonyms of lazy, are water on a duck’s back. Time to get things straight. Yes, we will in time.  For the time being, the eleventh hour, and the eleventh ultimatum, has come and my pile of clothes seeks attention.