backlog, betlog

I don’t know if it’s the UP culture or just my general temperament, but I’m quite the procrastinator. In UP, i kinda subscribe to the ongoing thought that it's better to be late but brilliant. as if by submitting a kick ass report would erase the fact that it's two weeks late. (well,yeah that sometimes works especially if you're my good friend Angela who's just brilliance personified).

I tend to do things at the last minute – writing a 1,500 word article on the day of the deadline, sending in applications on the last day, rushing from the house at 7:20 to get to Gateway and catch the 7:50 show; most of the time just barely making it, while the rest, i'm just plain sheepish.

During the past four years, however, I’ve started to correct this tendency especially when I was writing for the lifestyle section of Today. Francine, my wonderful friend and editor, would sometimes assign me to do two to three articles each week, sometimes one on top of the other. I remember going to this meeting on a Tuesday morning, then submitting the article in the afternoon because the following day there was another event to cover.

It was hard but it was fun. I also found out as the weeks passed by that I’m becoming more comfortable writing. Although my writing wasn’t – still is – not particularly clever or brilliant (no I’m not fishing here), I realized that writing has become a little easier. It was pure agony when I first started writing – and this wasn’t even creative writing, ha.

Anyhow, what I learned from that experience was that it’s possible, and ultimately rewarding, to work within the time frame provided and that it can even be confidence-boosting to turn over work a day earlier.

Lately however, I’ve been sliding. I don’t know if I should blame the sun for bearing too much on us this summer or I’m just being plain lazy. I have email backlogs as well as some office work (although I’ve been diligent the past few days making up for it). I sometimes answer text messages a day late. And now that I’m actually working without putting much though to it, I am surprised that I am accomplishing things again, just like this blog entry.

Hahaha funny how our mind works sometimes. As they used to say, ‘gawa lang ng gawa.” I better remember that the next time procrastination girl rears her lazy head again.