Pomodorini: The Cherry Tomato Procrastination Cure

By Donna Anastasi

The life of the procrastinator is fraught with anxiety and worry. Much of the time is spent oscillating between avoiding doing what needs to be done and sitting in front of the computer intending to do it, but not. Whether at work or at play there is a lingering feeling of guilt about to dos left undone. Thinking back on life, there is an endless stream of opportunities I’ve forsaken because “I had work to do.” And then spent the day not doing it. Other times, I’d go to fun events and while my body was there, my mind was mulling over work undone with a heaping side of anxiety and regrets over not being in front of the computer doing it. And yes, while being in the super-me stage is cool, fun, exhilarating even, it is not without cost. The metamorphosis happens through an extreme state of panic (think Bruce Banner’s trigger and his transitioning into the Hulk), and afterwards there is a period of complete exhaustion due both to sleep deprivation and from intense prolonged metal alertness and work (think Bruce Banner post-episode when he’s used-up and washed out, practically catatonic in his ragged clothes).

In recent years, I’ve become more and more spiritually awakened, more conscious, more present. Procrastination simply is not compatible with a balanced life and inner peace. It cannot be because it requires the pendulum swing between avoidance behavior, which is being two places at once, and intense emotional panic as a predecessor to getting any real work done. In the last couple of years, I came to decide I wanted a change, a real change and began in earnest to find a cure to this ailment.

The procrastination cure has two parts. The first is to treat procrastination as the addiction it is. The second is to follow a method that I’m calling Pomodorini which is an effective way to address the procrastinator’s two major weaknesses entering into work flow and staying there.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donna Anastasi
• Release date: Sep 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370745098

Donna Anastasi

Spin the Plate is Anastasi's debut novel. The 2013 printing of Spin the Plate is a completely revised and expanded novel-length version of her 2010 indie-award winning work: Cross-Genre Fiction, Women's Literature, Contemporary Romance. ABOUT SPIN THE PLATE: Jo is a survivor of a bleak and abusive childhood who roams the city streets at night as a powerful vigilante. Francis is a mysterious man she meets on the subway train. In this story, the average-guy hero battles to win the battered heart of the wary, edgy, less-than-perfect heroine. "A fast-paced, edgy, darkly comic tale of resilience, romance, and redemption that breaks over you in waves." - Holly Robinson, author Anastasi also authored two non-fiction small animal books published by Bowtie press: The Complete Guide to Gerbil Care (2005) a popular how-to book on breeding, raising, and caring for gerbils and The Complete Guide to Chinchilla Care (2008) a chinchilla handbook promoting these exotic and intelligent creatures as companions, not coats. Donna Anastasi lives in the woods of Southern New, Hampshire with her husband, two teen-aged daughters and an ever-changing menagerie.

Book preview

Pomodorini:

The Cherry Tomato Procrastination Cure

By Donna Anastasi

Pomodorini: The Cherry Tomato Procrastination Cure

Section 1: My story: I am Ollie

Hello, my name is Donna Anastasi, and I am a procrastinator. The earliest recognition I had of this fact came as a young child while watching a public service announcement by Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Fran was a human being and the voice of reason. Ollie was an immediate gratification-oriented, one toothed dragon sock puppet without much self-control. Kukla was a round faced, level-headed hand puppet. It was quite a long time ago, but as I remember the segment went something like this. Ollie had no lunch money and was trying to convince Kukla to give him some. After questioning, it turned out that the lunch money had been spent on a notebook, because he’d spent his school supplies money on some other item, and so on and so forth tracing all the way back to Ollie buying a kite he wanted with funds ear-marked for another purpose. The moral was, as Fran pointed out: Spend the money for what it is intended and you’ll have it for what you need. That’s me! I remember thinking clearly; though I did not take this as a financial lesson. My issue was not with money, but with time. Even then I remember that as soon as I had some time on my hands I would fritter it away