Most of us were brought up on the adage: Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today. However, despite this being oft-repeated in our home, some of us kids were chronic procrastinators and some were always determined to attack their tasks at first light.
A recent article in the newspaper used the word “pre-crastination” to describe what the latter type of person does and, with the “pre”, it obviously means the opposite of procrastination and implies doing things long before the deadline.
Instead of lauding “pre-crastinators”, however, the articles points out that we who do not put off a task, but knuckle down to it and somehow see it through despite how unpleasant it is and despite our preferences, could actually be counterproductive. We could be tired when we get to the main job of the day, having expended our energy on getting minor tasks out of the way, and we could wind up with little or no reserves of creativity or energy left for the actual important work.
Procrastinators who do not begin their task until the eleventh hour, will probably be overjoyed to hear this. I can hear a loud “I told you so” from the immediate family, getting back at me for the plaque I presented to my procrastinator siblings long ago with the words: “Don’t wait until the eleventh hour! You may die at 10:30!”
I don’t think my siblings’ ways changed much with that plaque, and now, I’m sure I’m being openly laughed at while they proclaim their “rightness”: Look at all the time and energy they saved while I was rushing around “getting things done” and then, since my work was complete, helping them with their tasks!
All of us remember that overeager student in school or college who was always prepared for a surprise test the teacher had hinted at; or the smug housewife whose meals were all done and she was dusting off the flour from her hands when you were returning from your morning walk with child and pet in tow; or that anxious-to-please-the-boss colleague who whipped out a plan of action for the next quarter when you hadn’t yet started on the actuals for the present quarter!
You probably dislike this “pre-crastinator” if you are a procrastinator who believes you work best under the pressure of a deadline looming over you — and those eager beavers are just plain annoying!
You may even dislike this “pre-crastinator” if you are one yourself!
Why?
Because when that surprise test was corrected by your teacher, the entire class, except you, did badly and the results were scrapped; when your lunch was ready on the table long before mealtime, everyone passing by helped themselves to an “itty-bitty taste” and suddenly when it was time to serve the meal, the dish was empty and you had to rush around grating cauliflower and kneading dough to fill everyone’s stomachs with hot stuffed parathas; when you had to revise the next quarter’s plan in the office because some procrastinator in another department had not given you up-to-date data …
What’s more, if you are a “pre-crastinator”, you may slowly begin to dislike everyone else in your ambit: because you did those mundane tasks and wrote a thousand words for your story before everyone woke up — and they have absolutely no idea that any of it is work at all!
So, they rise late and see you reclining on the sofa, exhausted, and ask you to find their socks (or something as trivial) because they’re late for their all-important job — and “you’re obviously doing nothing anyway!”
So, what should a “pre-crastinator” do?
Put it all off until tomorrow even if we have time and opportunity today?
Or just continue to be ourselves and hope for the best?
— Cheryl Rao is a writer based in India
