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Belief:             Stress from time limitations improves the quality of work.

Value:             Generating better work in a smaller amount of time makes productivity sense.

 Attitude:          I’m inclined to procrastinate until the last possible minute.

            Timeliness has never been my strong point. In certain circumstances, such as school, this proves especially bothersome.  Aware of my assignment for several weeks, I have put off developing the PR campaign that is due for presentation to the class tomorrow.  Finally, realizing that no catastrophe will occur to extend the impending deadline, I begin to work.  I labor over a few ideas and quickly begin to toil away at developing a campaign from the best choice.  For hours, I slave until I am bleary-eyed and weary.  I have been so enveloped in my efforts that I have lost all objectivity.  Barely time for a quick shower, I dress and dash off to class.  This is it:  the telltale moment.  Triumph!  My stress has strained my ideas to their very essence.  My presentation is a huge success!  I will have to remember this next time. This may come in handy for future PR crisis management situations. (Or so I believe, at least, in my sleep-deprived state of existence.) 

            Perhaps procrastination is a learned behavior; perhaps it is inherited.  In either case, I have been so graciously “blessed” with the trait.  Just ask my mother; some of my choice adolescent phrases were, “I will,” “I shall,” and, “I’m gonna.” A memorable time when this, possibly genetic, trait flared its ugly head was in the fifth grade during a month when Native American history was a topic of study.  Too busy participating in tomboy activities with my father the weekend before my Pueblo dwelling model was due, I enlisted his help in its creation late the night before its due date.  (Of course, he understood. He, too, has the atrocious attribute of procrastination...perhaps my intermittent lethargy is partly his legacy.)  Carefully following the recipe for the clay mixture, we shaped our formulation into some semblance of a Pueblo Indian structure.  Not having time to complete the project with the final setting spray and let it dry for 12 hours, we called it complete.  Unfortunately, once inside the un-air-conditioned school the next September day, my Pueblo habitat became a Pueblo glob of goo, and my grade became something similar to that.

            Working well under pressure is an admirable quality, but it is perhaps preferable whenever possible not to place unreasonable time constraints on your work.  So, although procrastinating may end in a pleasantly surprising triumph or in an unbelievably ridiculous failure, it is never a good idea--unless you enjoy cleaning up messy globs of goo.

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