Postponement Strategies

During my 50 year+ career, I was always task-oriented, whether there was a project at work to finish, or household chores to do. Time seemed, and was, very limited. There were always multiple tasks waiting to be done, so I worked hard to get each one completed as best and as quickly as I could.  Now that I have been retired for over two years, I see that my “get it done” philosophy is starting to wane. While this change serves to reduce daily stress and the pressures of working under constant deadlines, I am finding that I don’t like it. When I was working I readily postponed certain activities because there was no time for them. Now I simply postpone them.  I do many worthwhile activities that I didn’t have much time for when I was working- reading a book for pleasure, visiting a museum, calling a friend or family member, watching a movie- but what about those things I had on my to-do lists for all those years that I now have time for? They are still getting postponed and my postponement strategies seem to be growing. Here are some examples:

Things that I am postponing

• Cleaning out my closets: I know there are things there I don’t wear anymore, and that could be donated where they might be helpful to others.
• Going through my file cabinets: There are papers that I just kept so as to clear them off my desk, to look at later. Later has arrived, but I didn’t know what to do with those papers before, and I still don’t.
• Registering for and taking a Spanish conversation class: I always wanted to improve my speaking of Spanish, and shortly after retirement I enrolled in a conversational Spanish class and enjoyed it. The class ended with COVID but I still haven’t enrolled in another course.  
• Calling some people that I should talk with, including family and friends: Maybe I don’t really want to speak with them, and postponement of this was not just because of a shortage of time.
• Writing essays on a regular basis: Although I write for my monthly writers’ workshop I postpone doing it until shortly before class each month.
• Starting and sticking to a serious diet: There are some popular intermittent fasting diets – eat five days and starve for two, or eat eight hours in a day and starve for 16. These sound feasible, but I get stopped by the starving part, so am putting this off too.

Strategies I use to postpone and what I tell myself

• I’m ready to do a task but I realize I haven’t eaten for a while – it’s time for a snack.
•  I just finished creating my to-do list for the week- it seems overwhelming, and I need a break.
•  I’ll do just one more game of “Words with Friends.”
• I should turn on the news and see if anything important is happening.
•  Wow- look at my nails, I didn’t notice those cracks, and before I start anything I should file them down a bit and some nail polish would look nice too.
• I’m tired… maybe a little nap, and then I will jump right in.
• I haven’t been out of the house yet today… I’ll just go for a little walk.
• Writing more regularly… I can’t think of anything to write about right now… maybe later.
• And as for going on that diet, maybe I will start about two months before that big wedding… that should be a long enough time.

I have learned two main lessons from my postponement strategies: First, I need to look at my commitment to the item being postponed. If I feel no commitment to it and it’s not urgent, then I need to either cross it off the list of things I should do or I put it on my “long-term delay” list.  Second- If I still have commitment to the task, just do it!