How to Master Procrastination, Dilly-dallying, Dawdling and Puttering...

I happen to be married to the most gorgeous, brilliant, loving and patient man on the planet. Michael and I had been waiting all our lives to meet each other. Love at first sight for me. Affection moved more slowly for a cautious man who had been previously hurt. His attachment to me blossomed slowly with my ability to make him laugh, to break or alter items with breathtaking regularity (particularly when camping) and to surprise him by a thought, a word, an act.

And his need for thinking, for judging, for weighing up his options are a part of his psyche, as much as his need for love or for comfort or for safety. His procrastination is another partner in our relationship. He craves time for consideration before making any decision. Another stutter in his quest for coming to a conclusion is his reliable knack of not listening to conversations I may claim to have repeated over the previous days, weeks or months.

He often looks at me with blank surprise when I ask his opinion of a reasonable pressing decision. Or he may just shift uncomfortably, pleading more time for thought. Or he may decline to discuss that particular item, just because he doesn't want to deal with the situation at this point.

Which can be frustrating for me, as I tend to do the opposite. I make decisions quickly, sometimes disastrously and occasionally visionary. I am often very surprised when a plan does eventually come together.

Probably my greatest triumph involved selling my house and moving Michael, the animals and me, lock, stock and barrel to Heavenly Beverley. All done on the spur of the moment. Getting married was another of my rapidly initiated decisions. As was kidnapping Michael from SJOG hospital when a certain specialist was trying to kill him. In hindsight, that could have gone horribly wrong. Thank God it didn't.

My worst split second decisions involve the melting of thongs, the breaking of my ankle, the burning of my fingers and the misguided belief that I could squat on crutches and successfully have a wee in our backyard. I did finish my call of nature as I fell headfirst into a very large pile of mulch.

So there may be much to be said for mulling over thoughts before making a logical decision. Even Michael has had an exception to his usual procrastinating ways. His snap decision was all about the Forbes Building, way back in 2011.

This was really love at first sight. There was no logic, no objectivity and no wasting time. He had to have this crumbling, broken, smelly, leaking mess. He had been born to save her. I had to walk through the bowels of the building on at least six occasions before I could catch even a glimpse of Michael's vision.

And we duly became the proud parents of the Forbes Building. When I consider how much we've achieved, I am truly gobsmacked. For procrastination, delaying, waffling have at times caused the project to grind to a halt. Along with a complete absence of money and Michael's semi-regular rest cures in hospital.

Lately, procrastination has been all about avoiding the moving of twenty years of Michael's metal collection from home to his workshop behind the East End Gallery. His reluctance to begin this task goes way beyond reticence. He has not known where to begin. Even though our house will be sold at some stage and his stuff does have to move, Michael has resisted for at least a couple of months.

Naturally, I have solved his paralysis with one of my quick and amazingly simple decisions. We have new backpackers arriving on Thursday. Once more, Michael will run out of excuses not to proceed and the job will get done.

Until the next time!

 Michael's problem-solving

or this...

or this...

or this.

My problem solving (usually minus the STOP or the THINK)

That's what it boils down to....

And somehow, regardless of the decision-making techniques we use, most of the time, we turn out OK!