DAY 8: Something I Struggle with

Let me hit the nail on the head. Procrastination and Distraction. I know the topic says ‘something’ thus implying one thing, but for me, these 2 go hand in hand.

I’m supposed to start a task now. No. Something in my mind will be telling me, ‘You this boy, is like your village people have tie your destiny with stone and throw inside soak-away, better stand up’. Still, I will be on the bed, immobile bi oku. I know the consequences of my actions. I know I will eventually do it. But the rush will destroy whatever quality input I should have put into the task.

Then when I eventually start. Distraction. I be like, let me watch one episode in this series. Then from there, WhatsApp will join. 2 hours ti jona. I feel tired, so I want to sleep all over again.

How I ever get anything done in my life is a miracle. But at the back of my mind, I know I could achieve so much more with the resources I have, if only I would get more serious about tackling my twin demons.

I tried daily planners and it has worked to an extent. I’m usually faithful to my morning/afternoon tasks, but my evening tasks usually get betrayed by how tired I am. I read a Medium post where the person said that the hack was to intentionally give yourself very little time to do all your tasks. In her case, she gives an hour to her higher priority tasks which come up in the morning, while just 15 minutes are allocated to her evening, low priority tasks. I usually give at least 2 hours to a task. At times, I will see the 2 hours and be like, time dey, make I just shapaly reply this person for WhatsApp. Then from there, people like Tony, agent of distraction, will post one very funny meme, and that’s how I will just go through 20 different statuses like that. 30 minutes ti jona.

Other times I will see 2 hours on my daily schedule and be like, Hey God, I don die today, I will just lie down and be like, wo, let the world scatter sef, na living person dey plan him life.

But one thing that has worked for me is working through the night. I’m glad I discovered it. Fewer people are online. And even when they are, its way easier to avoid them, because they are probably awake for the same reason I am, to get stuff done that would be almost impossible in daytime.

So, I put my A or high priority tasks for this time, which usually runs from 12 – 5am. Then I sleep till God knows when. Which is why I stab classes a lot. All those 9, 10, 11 classes, I still have wrapper covering my head. Even 12pm gan, I’m just managing to drag myself to toilet. People like me, night school fit us.

Then why can’t I sleep at night and wake up 5am instead? Aunty, issa scam nitemi. Let’s not be exposing ourselves. All the 4am, 5am alarm that my left hand will off while my right hand is resetting my head for Round 2 of sleep and my leg is spreading the wrapper well. Ahn! Only God can forgive me.

In summary, its way easier for me to stay up all night and get stuff done than wake up early in the morning. The last time I did that was secondary school, where if I didn’t wake up by 4am, my Mum would pour cold water on your head while you were sleeping. I dey wake up 3:30am gan that time.



So, laughter aside, these are real issues, and I need help.