Procrastination and Inspiration

My wife likes to sew. And this year, she had this idea to make our daughters their Halloween costumes, since the ones you buy in the store are flimsy (at best) yet interestingly enough, very expensive.

This year, the girls wanted to be the princesses from the movie Frozen, and so my wife set out to make these costumes.

She completed the oldest' s costume this summer, because Katie needed it for a special bonfire night at the camp she went to.

This week, she's been working frantically to complete the other two children's costumes (Princess Anna for the second child and then the third child decided on Saturday for Ariel the Mermaid).

Anna's Dress - Not quite finished.

So, our living room is covered with strings, and bits of fabric, and various sewing tools, and will be until tonight, when she will have to be finished with them because there's a Halloween party at church on Wednesday.

Last year, the girls wanted to be Harry Potter characters, and she was still crocheting the last part of one of the Gryffindor scarves 30 minutes before trick or treating started.

The Potter costumes.

My wife likes to wait until this last minute sometimes.  She says that it's hard for her to make a decision until she absolutely has to.  She didn't buy patterns for the costumes, just kind of adapted current ones she already had, or she looked online for ideas.  Then, to save some money, she decided not to buy any fabric, and just use what we had (she dismantled some old dresses and costumes from the play that we did a few months ago.)

But all that to say, I see a trend with her and her creative ventures - she needs a deadline.  Without one, she can't make a final decision.  I'm not as much like that, and I'm trying to figure out what makes a person more of a procrastinator than not - I'm sure it has something to do with our personalities.

So, I think that theatre is a good creative outlet for my wife because of this aspect of her personality. When you do a show, there's a definite deadline for everything - Opening Night.

My wife's written on this blog before about how she hated writing (You can read that rant if you'd like), but it suits me just fine.  I'm not a procrastinator. I used to think I was, until I got married and saw top-notch procrastination in action.

One semester in grad school, my wife and I took an online class (which, my wife hates also).  If you've never done an online class, I'll tell you, you have to stay on top of things. You have to do a certain number of "postings" to a message board of sorts, basically proving that you've done the required readings, and then you have to respond to other people's posts, and it's usually a lot more busy work than if you just go to class.  And if you
procrastinate, it all just piles up.

Well, Liz made it through that class (and I think we did one more online the next semester), but it was painful.  I think in a way, my OCD-tendencies help me in this area.  If there's something I have to do, I like to just do it to I can stop thinking about it.

We're all different in the ways that we process and create. what's your modus operandi?

Her's is probably this: Procrastinators Unite. Tomorrow!