Procrastination: Why it... by Kyle W

Writing out my thoughts can sometimes help me deal with stress. It can also help the rest of you deal with your own everyday stress. Try it.

But sometimes it is hard to write out this stuff. Not only at sad times, but also when we just can’t get down to it. And then, if you are like me, you can procrastinate a lot. Which brings me to my point here.

I read somewhere (and I really can’t remember where) the idea that making a list is not only a form of procrastination, but it can actually be harmful for our emotional health.

To extrapolate on the idea... in making a list but not completing it, we have highlighted tasks we need to do and have thus put them at the top of our minds. When we fail to complete them, we are giving ourselves even more stress than we had already when we had only a vague idea of what needed to be done. Because now we have made them real.

But does making a list and not completing it really mean that you have all these things still on your mind? If we do not complete the things on that list is it going to cause us stress?

Or does it mean that, because you have made that list you have taken those things off your mind?

In other words, if we make a list and then throw it away (or simply let it gather dust in a corner somewhere), are we not saying that the things on the list are not as important as we once thought and that making the list was all we really needed to do?

So many questions. So little time to put off answering them.

I can understand the concept of list making being procrastination. I have made endless amounts of lists instead of actually carrying out the tasks listed on them. However, as someone who has a butterfly mind which tends to flit from one idea to the next with scary rapidity, I need those lists to focus my thoughts. And that’s a good thing, because, without that focus, I would never get anything done and then I would get really stressed.

So for me the jury is still out on the list making equals procrastination equals stress debate.

I’ll just add it to the list to think about some other time. Nah, I'll do it tomorrow.