Procrastination Will Bite

rocrastination will bite you eventually. Deal with the barking dog today. Avoidance does not cause a problem to become smaller, it only makes it larger.

Procrastination. It’s making you wait. Yes, that’s a shameless rip-off of “Anticipation”, a Carly Simon classic from the late 60s or early 70s.

I know procrastination will bite me if I am not careful. And yet, I still procrastinate. A considerable project lies before me. It’s going to be unbelievably tedious; it’s going to take me a long time, but it must be done. I cannot afford to put it off.

In case you haven’t heard, YouTube will be rolling out significant changes that will affect content creators such as I. My channel is a small one. Still, there are measures that I can put into place right now that will safeguard me from losing any of the hard work that I’ve put into that channel. I won’t go into all the details now but suffice it to say that you might see some significant changes on YouTube channels that you regularly watch.

YouTube was hit with a hefty fine by the American FTC a few months back. To cover its butt, YouTube now requires all YouTubers to comply with the strict guidelines set forth by the FTC. Look up COPPA if you want more details. This video explains how COPPA directly affects YouTube creators. However, this legislation affects all US-based online platforms and anyone who uploads content on those platforms.

Many YouTube creators are of like mind as me. We feel that the FTC crackdown on YouTube will have significant repercussions, affecting YouTube’s bottom line, and YouTube could eventually go the way of MySpace.

Over the next coming weeks, I will be downloading all of the videos that I put up on YouTube, and I will store them on an external hard drive just as a cautionary measure. That’s over 360 videos! The beautiful thing about this is that YouTube compresses the videos that you upload, and so those files won’t take up quite as much space or data. If YouTube goes the way of the dinosaur, I could upload those videos onto my website.

Procrastination will bite you eventually. Deal with that barking dog today.

One task I could not put off any longer was to make sure that the account that I log onto YouTube with, AKA one of my Gmail addresses, has a two-step authorisation process in place. I knew about the importance of two-step authorisations for quite a long time. I didn’t want to be bothered with the headache of having to use my smartphone as a secondary security check whenever I signed into my Google account that I use to upload videos. And so, I just put it off until I saw the damage done to a fellow YouTube creator’s channel because of her not having a two-step authorisation in place.

Someone figured out my friend’s password, hijacked her channel, then uploaded disgusting videos. The hijacker then locked her out of her account. She is now working with YouTube in the hopes that she can recover her years of hard work on her channel. In the meanwhile, my friend has lost dozens of subscribers. She’ll have to build up her base all over again. Although my friend didn’t know about the two-step authorisation, I knew about it for years.

Procrastination, combined with sheer laziness, could have led me to the same fate as my friend and I could not use ignorance as an excuse.


Personal Application

Procrastination takes on many forms.

What are you putting off today? Make a list, print it out, and keep it on your fridge or somewhere you will see it every day. If there are items on the list that are private, place the list somewhere you will see it and don’t tuck it away in a place you would rarely look. Cross off items as you complete each task.

Is there an awkward conversation you need to have with someone close to you? Have you been avoiding it because you know it’ll open a can of worms you would rather not deal with?

Do you need to call your bank, insurance broker, or financial advisor? Have you’ve been putting it off because you just don’t want to deal with yet more paperwork?

Do you have a physical issue that has been worrying you but you are afraid to go to the doctor or dentist to have it checked out? A doctor’s diagnosis is not a curse; it only brings what needs to be addressed to the light.

Spiritually speaking, are there areas in your life where you have felt the gentle nudge of God’s conviction? Are there secret addictions you are afraid to bring into the light because of the consequences you might face? Those addictions and those sins will only pile up on each other, burying you deeper in shame and fear, until you face them and you partner with God to actively dismantle their stronghold over you.

Do you skip the ‘boring stuff’ in your Bible reading and only read a few personal promises and the warm fuzzy stories? If so, you could be heading toward Bible Illiteracy, and as a result, you are not living the whole gospel. I am always amazed that many Christians have never read the New Testament cover to cover, no matter the Old Testament.

Go one step further. Consider putting a two-step authorisation spiritual security process in place. Share your list with a trusted friend who will keep you accountable and who will not confuse grace with enabling your procrastination.

It’s time to stop procrastinating and stop being lazy. I’m preaching to myself here. As soon as I proofread this blog then send it off on my mailing list, I’ll begin my YouTube archival project!

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All Bible verses attributed to the ESV version unless otherwise indicated.

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Until Next Week,

©2019 Katherine Walden

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