I have always been the kind of girl who never puts off till tomorrow what can be done today. From very early on, the importance of getting things done early was ground into me on a continual basis. I kept up with all my homework so that it was done days--sometimes even weeks--before the assignments were actually due. This helped me make sure that I got everything done in time to go spend my weekends goofing off with my friends. However, I've begun to notice that over the last few months I've begun to heed this fundamental childhood lesson less and less. Assignments for school are getting put off until the last minute. Laundry piles up in the basket until it overflows and I begin to hear complaints from my husband about how he has no pants to wear to work the next day because they're all dirty. Dishes pile up, and a thin layer of dust settles on everything. Some would call it laziness. I say, "I'll just take care of it tomorrow."
I know it's not healthy. And eventually, everything ends up getting done. Mostly it's because my husband complains about the house looking messy, which motivates me to take care of it and clean up. But there's something deeper here. My ethics haven't changed, I still want to get things done far ahead of the time before they are due. When I thought about it more thoroughly, I realized that I have lost some of my motivation to take care of things. Life has been busy, and my brain says "NO MORE!!!" so I sit down on the couch and stare at the television screen and want to do absolutely nothing.
What does this have to do with anything? I think a lot of people run into this situation, actually. It's disguised as laziness, and sometimes it really is. But with the pressures of life and the expectancies of people at their jobs and the demands they have at home, it is easy to fall into a pattern of wanting to do absolutely nothing. It isn't because there are things worth doing, or because the things that need to be done (and are inevitably neglected) are unimportant. It's because the brain--and the body--get tired. Sometimes they get so tired that they can't take any more work. That's what happened to me.
I further confirmed this with myself when I slept in on a day I had off, then proceeded to further procrastinate with much of my duties because I was too weary to do any of them. As the day continued, I started to regain some of my energy. With it returned my motivation, and my determination. I began to feel more like myself. I got up and started doing things I wanted to do. And then, in record-breaking time, I realized that all of the housework was done and I was free of responsibility to do whatever it was I wanted to.
I think it is important that people take into account that they need a lot of rest to be able to feel whole and well. So much of society drinks coffee with an addiction and uses energy drinks as fixes for sleep deprivation, then wonders why they crash at the end of the day when there is still so much to get done. If they would spend a little more time sleeping, or take a little more time for vacation, giving themselves the time they need to rest properly, then I believe that people would be happier, feel more productive, accomplish more, and be more successful at everything they do. I know I do.
