It's Not Procrastination; It's Just Advanced Prioritizing!

It's not procrastination if the alternative task you choose to prioritize has greater value or impact. So, I don’t procrastinate—I prioritize! I need to make that into a graphic tee, think. Stay tuned for that 😊

Yesterday was one of those days, and I didn’t even realize it until afterwards. I just keep going and going and going until I'm spinning (sometimes literally spinning with vertigo, but that’s for another day). Once I start moving in the morning, like most women I know, I don’t stop until my head hits the pillow. Sounds like I'm super productive, right? Well, yes and no. I am definitely getting things done, but for every task I complete, there's almost always another one added to the list. It never ends. You know the feeling, I’m sure! It’s so frustrating! You’ve been moving and doing all day long, yet you still feel like there’s so much left to do! Uuuuggggghhhh. That’s how I felt yesterday.

I closed the laundry room door because I swear I just finished washing, folding, and putting the laundry away… But lo and behold, another human living here delivered a long-lost dirty bin of clothes, making the floor disappear once again. Door closed. I’m sure they have clothes to wear. Their emergency does not create my urgency. Save that one! I think that’s another graphic tee: “Your emergency does not create my urgency.”

It was a Thursday night, there was homework to be done, after-dinner kitchen cleaning, bedtime routines to go through, ya know, the average weekday ho-hum. Then my daughter announced that the Minecraft movie just came out and was playing in our town tonight! We were all intrigued to see this movie because our family loves Minecraft, and the early reviews were mixed. We wanted to know why. We had seen some of the trailers, and again, mixed. We all like Jack Black, though, and thought it must be at least OK. We were more than anything just really curious how they did it. Well, “we” as in everyone EXCEPT my youngest—the actual Minecraft Master—he was unimpressed with the reviews and voiced he really didn’t want to go. Well, as would any mother (I can assume) when all three of her children are actually in the house at the same time on the same night, I hopped online and booked tickets for the 8:45 PM show for all three kids, my hubby, and myself. A spontaneous family movie night out! Had we ever done this before as a family of five?! The answer is no. Never!

I knew it was worth it before we even got through the previews. Looking over at my kids’ faces, they were smiling and laughing, with looks of pure happiness and joy. My heart was so happy.

And then the MOVIE! It was so good!!! My kids gave it a 10/10 and never took their eyes off the screen! It literally had all of us, including my husband and I and the 19-year-old, laughing the whole time. It had clever, witty dialogue, and the plot was creative and held a meaningful story. My husband, who works a high-stress 60-hour-a-week job, laughed and laughed and laughed. He was present. We were all present and chatted about our favorite parts on the way home. It was good on so many levels.

The young ones got their fill of laughs, cuddles, and heavily buttered (and layered, duh!) popcorn. The 19-year-old got a free movie ticket with concessions and a good movie, plus 90 minutes of non-embarrassing family time. My hubby got to relax, laugh, and eat his favorite cookies. This mama got to make a memory with her entire family that I will never forget. The joy and happiness on their faces were priceless. The night wasn’t anything grandiose, it wasn’t planned, and it wasn’t complicated. It was just what we needed. It was spontaneous, not even my idea, which makes it even better because sometimes the kids know what we need more than we do! Wouldn't you agree?

In another world, in another time, I would have said, no, not tonight, we have lots to do before bed and we have work and school tomorrow. I would have been tempted to stick to the plan, isn’t that what they are for anyway? I would have been tempted to get more things done on my list. You might think to yourself, well of course you went to the movie, that’s way more fun than finishing your to-do list and nightly routines! Some might call it procrastinating when you choose to do something instead of something else labeled as important. But really, I have learned it’s more about priority than anything else. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Not every good thing you choose to do in place of something else is procrastinating. Instead, be on purpose with your priorities and be confident that you know what’s important to you. Making memories and being with my family is more important than the list and the laundry. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with wearing jeans more than once. I don’t make the rules, lol, I’m just here to give you permission to prioritize and never feel bad about “blowing something off” if it has greater value than the alternative. You got this.