About procrastinating and busy-ness

So I should be working on a manuscript (I have a deadline morning after tomorrow with my master's supervisor - yup, over 3 years later and I'm still revising manuscripts from my thesis, enough said). Or I should be cleaning the house (friends are arriving tomorrow afternoon for a week of hunting, camping, and general hanging out). Or I should be making applesauce (2 bags of apples still sit on the kitchen counter from last weekend).

I'm sure I could come up with a long list of other things that are approaching the critical point. But since they aren't yet at the really critical point, and since I usually manage to pull things off, or near enough that no one can tell, I'm not overly worried. A bit stressed, yes, but not worried the world is going to collapse if instead of doing any of these numerous almost critical items, I instead sit on my computer and write.

I thought I was going to write about camping the weekend before last, when we went quail hunting and I shot my first two quails, one of which being my first wild bird-on-the-fly hit. I was pretty happy. But I thought I had already written that post and not yet uploaded pictures, so when I realized that all I had done was write in the title and that was it, well, I just started to write about the right-now. Because if I start writing about quail hunting the weekend before last, well, I just start also thinking about duck hunting last weekend, where I shot my first duck out of the air (last year I got one duck, and it was sitting still on the water, not very sportsman-like, I know, but I fed my family, gosh darn it!).

So instead of writing about quail hunting, or duck hunting, or any of the other hunting-related things that are going on this time of the year around here, I will ramble on about procrastination, and critical things. Speaking of critical things, I read a couple of thought provoking linked articles somewhere over the weekend about not letting the tyranny of the urgent crowd out the important (check the phrase out over here).

I think I'm caught in that trap right now. Its important to me to get these manuscripts out. Its important to me to make and can applesauce. Its important to me to get back on the rowing machine and start setting some new pb's. But none of these things are getting done, or getting done well enough, because all of the urgent things keep taking over my life. I say that it will get better once such-and-such gets done, or after the first couple weeks that that season is open, or after we finish the rental, but in reality, there is always a crisis these days. Not necessarily a critical crisis, but something that desperately needs to be done because it has been left too long undone.

When I sat down last January and decided on the things I wanted to do this year, sure, cutting enough firewood was on the list, but it wasn't on my fun list, it was on the property list. And sure, shooting a grouse or two or more was on the list, but again, it wasn't on my fun list. Sewing a quilt for Little M was, and is, on that fun list. So is canning applesauce (heck, and tomatoes!). So is getting back in the swing of the rowing machine. But none of these things are getting done.

So since the only one to blame for me putting off my fun is me, I guess I have to start sticking up for myself, for my fun. So look out world, here I come! And I'm not going to bend over backwards for you until I get me some items crossed off my fun list :)

And in the meantime, I'll get back to work tidying the house for those house guests. Because the only way to get ahead is to get caught up, right? :P