Procrastinating!

So I wasn't going to blog about this, but then my friend over at Compost blogged about procrastination.  She had been procrastinating a particular task for quite some time, but once she started into it, it went quite smoothly and quickly.  She was done in half an hour.  Then she had to ask what we had procrastinated recently and what helped us get it accomplished.

My mind instantly jumped to expense reports.  They're probably the number one thing I procrastinate. I have procrastinated them non-stop for the last 13 years.  And I always dread them.

The current process is fairly simple: Fill out the form (easy).  Print it. Sign it. Scan form and receipt. Email files to correct person.  Done.  The first time I did them, I got the forms completed, but it took me 2 hours alone to get the printer to work.  The second time, I was doing three sets at once and kept getting the digital versions of the receipts and forms mixed up.

This time: I was sure I had been dreading it for no reason.  One form. Two receipts.  I decided to tackle it instead of procrastinating it.  Fill out form, print, sign, digital photo of it and receipts (no scanner), email files to person.  Done.  YAY!

Until the receiving person noticed an oops!  I had typed in one of the numbers wrong.  About $20 wrong.  I would need to fix the digital form.  Which I had not saved in an editable format.  Oops.  So I quickly repopulated the form, printed it, signed it, and snapped the photo.  But when I went to upload the photo from my camera to the computer, the computer wouldn't recognize the memory in the camera!  It had worked that morning, but I had switched memory cards since then.  I decided to blame the memory card and switched back to the old card.  Took another picture, only to find out the computer still wouldn't recognize it.  (Oh, and about then, the camera low battery light started blinking.)  After needless fretting, a laptop restart was all that was needed to get both memory cards/camera working.  (And the camera battery lasted until I got the photos uploaded - PTL!)

Then it was easy to finish it up and get it emailed in.  But it still reinforced my irrational, internal fear that expense forms will eat my entire life (or at least a couple hours) if I let them.

So what did I learn now that I'm thinking about it?  Perhaps God wanted me to work my attitude and not allow myself to get frustrated because of circumstances.  Maybe it was an opportunity for me to work on rejoicing instead of grumbling and muttering and fretting.  Perhaps a lesson on depending on the Lord to help me with the project instead of deciding, "I'm going to man up and get this done!" and ultimately working in my own strength.  Maybe I need to learn to control my fears and thoughts ("This expense report project is going to be horrible!") and trust the Lord for His guidance.  God's been trying to teach me about trusting instead of fearing, but I hadn't thought it about it applying in this type of situation.

Yep, maybe I did have lots to learn after all.  Thanks, LAH, for making me think through them.