Procrastinator's Day (and Time)

Well, it's 8:16 PM. I certainly waited long enough today to say:

HAPPY PROCRASTINATOR'S DAY 2008!

If you are at all like me, you'll find yourself sometimes waiting to do things until the last second. It's as if time speeds up the closer to a deadline you get. Below is a good illustration of what I mean (taken from a site with a more elaborate take on the idea).


Of course, there are ways to overcome procrastination, the seemingly most sensible being to set up schedules; i.e. to responsibly start and work through tasks so as to finish on time without any kind of rush near the end. Sounds good in theory, sure. Many procrastinators seem to find alternatives, however, that puts the onus of change somewhere else...namely, their clocks.

It was not that long ago that every clock in my house displayed different times, all of them fast. For my personal alarm I would close my eyes and pay attention to something else while setting the time so I wouldn't know exactly how many minutes fast it actually was. That way, when the alarm went off in the morning, I couldn't calculate what the actual time was and then rationalize another snooze cycle. The mystery of what time it actually was is what ultimately got me up, because I didn't want to be that late.

I've since gotten on board with actual time (and yes, all the clocks in the house tell the same time more or less), though the trick of not knowing how fast a clock is is still a tool commonly used by procrastinators everywhere. To make this even easier, David Seah has created The Procrastinator's Clock, as seen below. It's guaranteed to be up to 15 minutes fast, but it may be the right time, so watch out!