Procrastination and Priorities

     It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.

–Soren Kierkegaard

     During my freshman year of college, I fell behind in my studies. The amount of anxiety (A) I felt could be described using a very simple formula comparing the amount of work (W) I had to do, divided by the time I had to complete my work (T): A=W/T. As A gets further from zero, the higher my anxiety was. For instance: I currently had 6939 days worth of work to do and probably 10 days to do it in. Meaning A (my anxiety) was a gigantic 693.9. There was so much anxiety that I decided it was impossible to do anything that day, so I left it off until tomorrow. That meant I now had one less day to get the same amount of work done. For those of you keeping track at home, my A was now 771. As T approaches 0, A grows even larger until T becomes negative. At that point, the deadline has passed and anxiety tends to slip right into depression.
 
     About this time in my frustrated and anxiety stricken life a friend pops up and says he knows the secret to living with procrastination. He explains to me that what’s important is prioritizing. Figure out what’s worth spending the limited amount of time available only on what is the most important. After figuring out what is important, then I would know what to let go and what to actually do. Essentially, I was able to reduce T and just accept my bad/mediocre grades.