My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry ’til a more convenient season.
Mary Todd Lincoln
Oh, Mary Todd, you were so right. Procrastination is an evil genius. Once I procrastinated by looking up procrastination. It derives from the Latin, procrastinare, to delay until tomorrow. Synonyms: delay, put off doing, adjourn, be dilatory, cool, dally, dawdle, defer, drag, drag one’s feet, give the run around, goldbrick, hang fire, hesitate, hold off, lag, let slide, linger, loiter, pause, play a waiting game, play for time, poke, postpone, prolong, protract, retard, shilly-shally, stall, stay, suspend, tarry, temporize, wait…
I am actually not procrastinating today. At least not right this minute. I’m writing this blog post just like I said I would, and then I’m going to work on revisions for chapters one and two of The Saltwater Twin. But sometimes I do. Procrastinate. It happens. And it comes in so many flavors. Here, for your delectation, or in case you are interested in procrastinating yourself, are some of my favorite interwebs spots to visit when I ought to be doing other things.
At the speech accent archive you can listen to people speaking English with almost any accent under the sun. Why do I love this so much? I don’t know. But I do.
Here are the sounds of so many kinds of animals. Extra fun: turn up the volume if you have a dog (maybe even a cat) and watch him cock his head to the side. Also, here’s where to find out what people say in different languages to mimic animal sounds.
Watch the All Blacks rugby team doing the haka on youtube. This makes me very happy.
At freerice.com you can take quizzes and donate rice. Genius.
Browse etsy.com to buy one of a kind things and support artisans and craftspeople all over the world.
Look at cute animals. It raises your endorphins. So it’s actually good for you. And it will probably help you do a better job on whatever it is you finally intend to get around to doing.
I think a little procrastination is okay. Growing crops season after season without a break depletes the soil. Farmers let a field lie fallow to allow the land to renew itself. So I try not to be mad at myself when procrastination happens, and I try to build in some time for it so I don’t snap and go on a three-day bender.
How about you? Favorite flavors of procrastinating?
the saltwater twin 
reading blogs, shopping at target, doing things i DO need to get done at some point (like inventorying and organizing my new husband’s linen closet) rather than what i’m supposed to be working on right now (packing my apartment up to move my belongings into storage – in one week…gulp!), reading recipes, watching an entire season of a television show (season 1 of ‘downton abbey’ yesterday)… oh, and i’m also particularly obsessed with ordering personalized stationary at present. i have various orders (for calling cards (!), change of address cards, business cards, note cards, gift enclosure cards etc.) in the cue at several different sites…all waiting for me give final approval and click the send button….or not.
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Ah, yes, I lost a weekend to Downton Abbey at some point. And I like that doing one task while temporarily avoiding another.
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I like the word goldbrick. How do I hang fire? Definitely Netflix, and I certainly like to go into detail when cleaning and organizing my apartment… wiping down baseboards, finding holes and marks on the wall to repair, etc. Also, taking care of small tasks, such as recycling or going out to buy shoelaces or shipping tape because I ran out and might need to send out boxes in the coming months. These tasks can easily wait until the next day, or next week. Though they certainly keep me from doing more fulfilling creative pursuits, even though I’m currently on creative hiatus. Maybe my use of the word hiatus is a deceptive form of shilly-shally.
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You are making me think there are definitely different brands of procrastination. You seem to be a productive procrastinator. Very handy to have around.
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Being a St.Louis Cardinal fan, and being spiteful that my statistics final was keeping me from the game, I spent WAY too much time last night procrastinating by trying to create the cardinal bird perched on a bat through letters & characters on my phone.
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