It definitely feels good to breathe a sign of relief when a blizzard ends and those bright blue skies return. What doesn’t feel that good though is looking at all the shoveling that needs to take place afterwards, especially when the winds are whipping at subzero temperatures. But thankfully, I was able to avoid these conditions recently because my parents taught me about being proactive instead of procrastinating in life.
When the snow started the other day, I knew from all the reports that it was going to be one epic of a storm. There was talk of whiteout conditions, frigid temperatures, and huge winds gusts. The city even placed itself in a Level 3 condition which meant that no one would be allowed out on the roads at all during the storm unless it was for an emergency. As the snow began to fall, I started going outside approximately every other hour to clean off what had accumulated. By the time I decided to call it quits for the evening, the storm was already starting to pass and when I awoke the next morning, I was quite happy with my discovery. Only an inch or two of new snow had fallen on the areas I had diligently took care of the night before. Even the end of the driveway wasn’t completely blocking my exit either. Within twenty minutes, the snow removal job was done and I was back inside where it was warm. It was there that I got to see everyone else in the neighborhood try to unbury themselves from the huge piles and drifts of snow that had accumulated on their driveways from the storm.
This wasn’t always the way I used to handle big blizzards. As I child I was often the one given the chore of clearing the snow off the driveway after a snowstorm. One of the worst memories I have from that chore was when a humungous snowplow would come by after I thought I was done with my task. It frequently left the end of my driveway buried in another foot of snow that I still needed to remove. I distinctly remember my parents suggesting during one particular storm, that I go outside and clean it off in stages so that it wouldn’t be so difficult waiting until it ended. And ironically, they were right. I spent only twenty minutes every few hours cleaning the lighter accumulations of snow off the driveway instead of tackling over a foot of snow all at once. When that storm ended and all the shoveling was done and over with, I was a lot less sore and tired than any of the previous times I had waited until the last minute to do it.
I’ve applied this lesson to so many other things in my life these days. I don’t like to procrastinate and wait until the last minute to do anything anymore because it’s just too overwhelming to tackle those things when I’ve done that. One of the roommates I lived with in Massachusetts was notorious for doing this with his laundry. He would go weeks and sometimes even months without doing it to the point where his room just became piles and piles of dirty clothes. Every time he thought about tackling the task of cleaning them, he would get completely overwhelmed and skip the chore altogether making those piles only grow even higher. I’ve seen people procrastinate just like this with other tasks such as cleaning dirty dishes in the sink, cutting the grass in the yard, or vacuuming and dusting the house. In each case, the amount of time and energy needed to take care of those tasks by waiting until some future date and time was always much greater than taking care of it on a regular basis.
I’ve reduced a substantial amount of stress in my life by becoming proactive in how I handle all my tasks now. My partner has a good chuckle every time I come off the long drive to get to his home because I don’t sit and watch television when I arrive. Instead, I’ll tackle any chores that I’m slated to do so that I can relax the entire next day.
Who knows, maybe procrastinating does work for some people? Or maybe it’s just what they’re used to doing? Either way, if you are someone who gets stressed out and overwhelmed easily, I encourage you to take a movement, breathe, and think about how you handle all the tasks in your life. Do you act in advance before they get out of control or do you wait until the last moment before tackling them? In the long run, the only thing procrastination leads to is greater feelings of being overwhelmed, so why not start trying to become a little more proactive now and you might start saving yourself some undue stress?
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson