Procrastinating is Making You Work Harder

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My kid spills a little something on the ground while I am making dinner. Oh I’ll just clean it up later when I have more time.

I would rather sit down and watch a tv show instead of loading the dishwasher or hand washing the dishes after dinner. I’ll do it tomorrow when I have more energy.

I just made myself a smoothie and fill it up with water to “soak” instead of cleaning it right then. I’ll clean it later, I tell myself. I actually don’t mind vacuuming, in fact, I find it quite enjoyable! I was reading some reviews on a website like Appliance Hunter and I even decided to buy myself a new vacuum cleaner. I use it all the time and it’s the one cleaning task that I actually enjoy. It’s the tasks like washing up and cleaning the bathrooms that I really hate.

I got a stain on my shirt and instead of treating it right away, I toss it in my ever-growing stain pile and tell myself I will get to it when I have more time.

You guys. I can not tell you how many times I have done all of the scenarios above. You see, I am prone to procrastination all day every day. Even when I was in school, I was the queen of pulling all-nighters the night before something was due because I had procrastinated so long. I told myself I worked better under pressure, but in reality, it was not true. I have found the same to be true for work around the house.

Procrastinating household tasks makes you work harder.

Procrastination is never a good idea. At the root of my procrastination is me either waiting for the mood to strike or when I have more time to devote to a certain task. Every single time though, I am faced with the reality that I am never really in the mood to clean and I never have a ton of free time. Something will always come in and take up the free space, so I might as well complete the task when it comes up. And here is the worst part about procrastinating.

Messes compound when we procrastinate

What was once a blender with the remnants of a freshly blended smoothie, the next day is like cement on your blender. It will take three times as long to come clean now. Go me! I have now made myself work three times harder. If I had taken care of the situation right away, I could have rinsed out the blender, squirted some soap and water in, and then turned the blender on high speed to “wash” it. It would probably take less than a minute.

The same is true for the mess on the floor that your toddler dropped. When it first happened it required just a hot soapy rag to clean it up in a couple of swipes. Now after procrastinating, it’s dried, calls for some serious elbow grease and repeated hot soapy rag treatment to get it off the floor.

Procrastinating housework makes you work harder.

Don’t even get me started on dishes. One night’s worth of dishes takes fifteen minutes to clean. Two or three nights worth of dishes, takes hours. It doesn’t add up, but it’s true. Food is now stuck on. All of the dishes can’t fit in one load of the dishwasher or in the sink. It’s an all out battle in the kitchen now and the dishes have won.

If you are finding yourself overwhelmed with housework, it may be because you have gotten into the habit of procrastination. Put some daily routines in place, pick a weekly cleaning routine that works for you, and for your sake, take care of the spill, stain, dirty dishes, fill in the blank right away before they compound and become huge overwhelming problems. Your cleaning routines will start becoming easier and faster when you don’t have to work overtime making up for procrastinating. I had to learn the hard way that procrastinating causes me to work harder. I’m slowly learning to work smarter and not harder.

2017-03-25T03:01:13+00:00

One Comment

  1. Leigh January 26, 2019 at 6:32 pm - Reply

    Chronic procrastinator here! I think I’m waiting for the work to become “fun” lol or I’m just lazy & can’t be bothered. But then its 20min til my family will arrive home & I feel guilty & run around trying to tidy up. Ugh

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