Learning through Laughter

Bob Owen, Humorist

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Let me be perfectly clear. Senior citizens do not procrastinate. It’s true. We don’t. We really don’t.

I know young people who have assignments in class to do and wait until the last minute. When I had a project at work, or a marketing plan to complete, or a speech to give, I often caught myself waiting until the last comfortable moment to get going on it. Then I went into overdrive, spending hours at the end refining and triple-checking facts and delivery. I don’t do that now. Period. I don’t put off what I need to do. None of my “same age” friends do either. We can’t!

Brenda just called and asked me to take butter out of the frig this afternoon so it can soften for making cookies this evening. It’s 9 a.m., and I immediately went and set out the butter. l “googled” butter. It’ll be safe. If I didn’t do it at 9 a.m.? It wouldn’t get done. I’d forget it. So I don’t procrastinate. I do forget sometimes! The difference is that I don’t put it off. I just may not do it.

I love my iphone, because I can put in a “thing to do” on my calendar and then put in alerts. My phone dings when the alerts come due. My hope for future iphones is that the designers will increase the number of possible alerts from two to, oh let’s say, 145. I program an alert an hour ahead and then 15 minutes ahead, for example. My phone then dings twice to remind me. I think a ding every few minutes for several hours might be helpful.

I stack things on the corner of the kitchen cabinet closest to the door as I go toward the garage to my car. Brenda thinks it sometimes looks a bit tacky. I don’t care. My business relies on that stack. I’m leaving for a meeting at 10 this morning. My report and outline are stacked on the cabinet. I WILL look at that stack and remember my materials. If they were on my desk, I probably would remember them, but maybe not until I had driven past someone’s house who reminds me of someone who reminds me of someone I’m meeting with, and then I’d drive back home and get them.

Brenda asked me to mail a Christmas present to Lee and Ann. She put it on the kitchen table. Not on my stack. Didn’t get mailed.

So you see, I didn’t put off mailing their gift. I just didn’t remember to do it in the first place. There IS a difference.

Date of Blog Story: 
December 15, 2011

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