WHY WHY WHY do some people, myself included, wait until the very last possible minute to do something? Contrary to popular belief, I am not a procrastinator. I merely have a lot to do – not as in “tons of work” but as in a lot of different things to do. I like it that way – it keeps me excited. But there is a balance that I to try to reach between getting things done and living.

I wouldn’t flatter myself by referring to myself as an “over-achiever.” I hear over-achiever and I think of Linda Baste, who used to sit in the front row of every class I had with her in high school. It wasn’t good enough that she had to get an “A” on every test, but she answered all the bonus questions for the ultimate slap in a “‘B’ is getting me by” guy’s face. Linda was the girl in school that did extra credit projects at home and brought them in for those unpublicized “extra points” – which totally screws the class curve that I was hoping would put me into the “look honey our boy got an ‘A’ – let’s celebrate” bracket. Damn her.

Over-achievers gone bad. It’s people like Linda that make you wonder – is she really doing this for the love of knowledge, or is she being intellectually and intentionally competitive, guarantying her place in the roll of Honor? If that’s the case, hats off to Linda who I am sure must be running a Fortune 500 company somewhere in the world. But if her method of madness was for shear pursuit of making it impossible for the rest of us to get an “A” – that’s when over-achievers step over the line.

I wonder if somewhere in the world there is an evil contingent of over-achievers, constantly getting the best jobs with the best pay and the best “let’s-take-my-plane” perks. And for what? A couple of big houses, a few luxurious European vacations a year, and a Bentley or two in a climate controlled garage. I mean, where does it all stop? Do you think during the annual Over-Achiever meeting they determine the height of the bar for that year? I got really excited one year when I was asked to what I thought was the Over-Achievers meeting, only to find out – I misunderstood the group’s name and ended up at the Over-Eaters meeting. Which, in a way, I guess you could say have over achieved in food consumption. Note to self: have ears checked.

Back to my point. I do not consider myself an over-achiever. I like to look at myself as just an achiever. I like to get things done. I love my list, but more so, I LOVE checking things off my list! And, yes, I have been guilty of putting something on my list that I have already done, just for the satisfaction of checking it off. It makes us achievers feel a little like we have over-achieved that day.

I used to have multiple lists, but then it got to the point of managing lists more than achieving. Now I have just one list. Of course, it’s broken into things that need to be achieved today, this week, this month and this year. Naturally it is prioritized, categorized, and color-coded. (I know – it borders on tightly wound with a hint of anal retention). But it’s my system and it works.

A procrastinator, I am not. Like I said, I just have a lot of stuff to do. So I have to prioritize. I try not to do all the fun stuff up front, because then you’re left with ALL the stuff that begs to be procrastinated. Lesson learned a long time ago; don’t do all the fun stuff first – it makes getting through the other crap painfully boring.

It’s the age-old story of good versus evil. The Procrastinator versus The Achiever. Sounds like a WWF Saturday night fight. There are always two sides to every struggle. Is there value in procrastination, or what I like to refer to as “delayed response?” A well-timed delayed response can be useful and efficient. I used to work for a guy who could never make up his mind. It used to drive me nuts. After months of re-doing, re-working, re-everything, I conditioned myself NOT to respond to his first request. If I waited about a week to begin, I didn’t have to deal with him changing his mind eight times over. Delayed response can work in your favor. Of course, the delayed response tactic never worked for me when I was younger. I always thought if I waited long enough to shovel the snow from the walk – it would melt – therefore avoiding the process altogether. I learned, the hard way, it’s not an acceptable philosophy for a teenager.

But as an adult I have found that my studied practice of delayed response actually works a lot of the time. By not jumping into everyone else’s problems and trying to solve all their issues – a lot of problems solve themselves and issues go away. See, the snow does melt. Don’t get me wrong – there is beauty in over-achievement. It’s not that I don’t want to over-achieve, or under-achieve for that matter, I just think that it’s hard to over-achieve in more than one area of your life. Over-achievers tend to specialize. What’s important to me is variety. You know, the things on the long list. So if I have to wear the label of procrastinator (i.e. delayed responder in my world) once in a while, so be it. It only means that something else has my attention for the time being. And isn’t just being in the moment what life’s all about? Time to check my list and see what’s next. Life moves fast. Don’t blink. Sign me,

Not Over Anything

Tom Burns