Is a SAHM procrastinating

Author: Lovleen Gureja

After working for 15 years in the corporate world, I realized the corporate world teaches a lot. Discipline, goal-orientedness, meeting timelines, multitasking and being professional in communication are a few of the many learnings. And now, in this new role that we all describe as SAHM (Stay-at-home mom), the journey has become a little easier since I follow those learnings. Time management, multitasking and, above all, patience are some of the key skills used in my daily life.

While going through an article in the newspaper today, I came across the big word Procrastination. After a calculative fight with my thoughts, I concluded I am not procrastinating on my tasks, my kids are going to school on time, eating well, have good grades, things are in place, and all chores are on time.

It’s pretty common to procrastinate in some aspects of our lives, we know what we want to do, but something gets in the way, but I felt I was still completing the tasks, so it’s ok.

I was happy and confident, but only till I received a WhatsApp message from a friend who was a classmate, batchmate, an ex-colleague and also a SAHM for almost the same period. She sent a message stating that she had just completed her PG in Business Administration and also sent a copy of the degree. She had always wanted to do that but could not due to work and other reasons. I was happy for her growth and proud of the efforts she had put in with the two kids at hand. But something was pulling me down and drowning me in depression. Somewhere I was sad, I wanted to be happy for her, but I couldn’t. It didn’t take me long to understand what it was!

I was wrong. I am procrastinating. I am procrastinating on my growth and my skills. This message changed my look at where I was and what I wanted to do. True procrastination is an emotional problem that comes from within, and we place a do-not-disturb mode on our growth thinking that it is the end of learning since these skills are not required in the current role. Procrastination is an active process – we choose to do something else instead of the task that we should be focusing on.

We all in our primary years have learnt a few subjects, the knowledge is not even when we grow, but they have to be learnt as they instil skills and thoughts in us, similarly, we need to keep upgrading ourselves as our brain too requires food for thought and not the same repetitive tasks to keep it active and skillful. I always thought a skill was only required for a corporate profession, and if I was not in that role, I didn’t have to upgrade, but I was wrong. I still have to upgrade my skills for a better me, confidence, self-esteem and self-growth.