Darby Hinkley

Organization is easy, if you do it every day.

Procrastination is the enemy of organization, and I have succumbed to the procrastination bug not only in 2023, but pretty much my whole life.

In college, I was that nearly straight-A student who stayed up all night (not kidding) countless times writing that 10-page paper that was due at 8 a.m. Once, I recall being in a zombie-like state at the library at 7:40-something, praying the printer would work, snagging the hot papers off the machine, frantically stapling them together and literally running across campus to get them to my professor’s office before 8 to make sure I made the deadline. I did. I got an A.

Why do I leave things to the last minute? I think I might get an adrenaline rush from pushing myself to race against time to find out what I’m capable of. Am I capable of ending the prior sentence with a preposition? I am. Should I have? Most English aficionados would agree that I should not have, but another of my quirks — or flaws, perhaps — is that I enjoy being annoying sometimes. Just ask my siblings. I’m the worst. But let’s keep talking about procrastination, and why it doesn’t play well with organization.

Here are some signs I procrastinate:

¯ My laundry is piled high in my bedroom. When I run out of underwear, I just go buy more so I don’t have to do laundry. So, I’m also lazy and weird, but that’s beside the point here.

¯ I don’t remember the last time I opened a bill. My husband does that. Bill-paying is boring. I’d rather buy underwear.

¯ Heavy boxes full of newspapers, old bills, tax documents, and heck knows what else are just stacked up in my garage, waiting for me to go through them. They’ve been there for five years, and they have moved with us from house to house for the past 12 years. What is wrong with me? Plenty, but at least I’ve narrowed it down to procrastination for the moment.

¯ I don’t hit the snooze button, I just roll over. And over. And over. Pretty soon, it’s two or three hours past the time I planned on getting up, which means I’m already two or three hours behind for the day. Self-destruct much? Basically, my self-discipline meter is broken and has been for a while.

It’s January. I know what I SHOULD be doing. I should be getting up early, making myself a balanced breakfast of egg whites and, um … What do healthy people eat? Spinach? I should be heading into the gym in my stretchy pants that still somehow fit after all those holiday treats. I love me some spandex.

I’m just tired, though. It’s dreary out. I get the post-holiday blues. Everything is so fun in November and December, looking forward to Christmas, and then, BAM! January smacks you in the face, reminding you that you’re lazy and you need to get off your duff and make good on your resolutions, or your entire year is shot.

Well, guess what, January? I’m going to do better, but not because you said so. I’m going to do better because I deserve better. I deserve a more organized home, and so does my family. I’m going to change my perspective to see the SMALL PICTURE. I’m going to open that bill so it doesn’t become a heaping pile. I’m going to do a load of laundry every day so it doesn’t become overwhelming.

Getting out of the procrastination pit is quite the undertaking, but I know if I schedule in some organizing time each day, I will feel better about myself, maybe even by February. It will keep me occupied during the bleak winter months as I look forward to new beginnings, which actually coincide better with spring.

I might hit the gym, and I might eat better, but my main focus is going to be clearing my surroundings of clutter and making daily organization a new habit so I can be ready for anything in the new year.

Darby Hinkley can be found under piles of papers in her garage, or, alternatively, buying underwear at a local retailer near you. To reach her, send her a letter that looks like a bill in a plain business envelope, and she might respond to you by 2032.