Procrastination

There is something skew-whiff about taking too long to buy a calendar.

Every year it's the same: mid-November approaches and there is the note on the sub-standard calendar I ended up with last year, having failed to search on time.

So all the decent ones are gone.

Actually, there aren't any good ones, period, and one day I will clean up with a set of calendars that *deliver* the goods:

• Big enough squares in which to fit more than two three-word appointments.
• Phases of the moon (about which my mother is endlessly curious and observant and invariably gets it ever-so slightly wrong)
• Local Saints' and public holidays.
  • Have you ever seen the expressions on your family when you've zoomed into town for a big ol' shopping spree - yee haw, no queues! - misled* by that damfool calendar of "I Like Insects more than You"?
  • I don't want to know about the 'rich, almost gaudy colors and striking patterns inherent in the Erotylidae family of pleasing fungus beetles.'
  • Nor that the "Systemae helicopter damselflies - with their ultraslow wing beat and completely silent flight - are almost spectral in their jungle habits of Central and South America."
• I want to be alerted to: Clean Monday ~ Greek Independence Day ~ Labour Day ~ Aug 15th's Dormition of the BVM ~ Ochi Day.* ~ Last not least, St Spiridion Day.
• And - please - no botanical pics. I'm bombarded with planty views from the moment I step outside. At least spare my eyeballs when I finally get refuge indoors from that infernal treadmill of futility.

The problem is procrastination so I'm quite interested in Professor Piers Steel's Procrastination Equation: U=EV/ID.

'U' stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task.

It is equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task, and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.

According to Il Professore, procrastination is becoming a bigger deal because many more jobs are "self-structured", with people setting their own schedules.

This means we tend to postpone with delayed rewards in favour of activities that offer immediate rewards.(I'm quoting all this, of course).

'Procastinators tend to live for today rather than tomorrow: short term gain for long term pain.

Famous procrastinators include Douglas Adams who said he loved the "whoosh" of missed deadlines passing over his head.

Hari post-scripteroo: But I doubt that Brigadier General Ahmed 'Sooty' Raza-sharp Khan falls into the Hari Procrasters category: Sword of Honour, most successful overseas cadet, medals galore, top marks. Not a man to hang around or be caught hari nappers.