When Procrastination Pays Off

Twice in the past month I have saved money by putting things off. This isn’t the way things are supposed to work. If you are proactive, you are supposed to be rewarded, right? This time the universe smiled on my occasional slacker tendencies. Or to put a more positive spin on it, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

[Author’s Note: The best part of not having cable/dish/antennae is the fact that DH2U and I now actively choose what we watch, rather than taking laps through the channels. We watch the new shows (thank you internet streaming!), but there is definitely an affinity for the shows we grew up watching. My heart waxes nostalgic at the thought of Hannibal’s cigar chomping at the end of a mission. I am a child of the 80s.]

As I have mentioned, the universe has started pushing me in a direction I had seriously considered going anyway.Part of that master plan involves creating a website. I’d purchased the domain nearly a year ago, but had never done anything with it. The fabulous hosting service that I use here had a sale at the end of the year for current users: Host another site and pay only $38 for a year. It’s weird: Once I make a decision, I normally have a burst of energy where I do all (okay, sometimes just some) of what needs to be done. This time I didn’t do anything.

Just before Christmas, I received another email with a 3 day offer for only $25! I immediately clicked that link and started the process of transferring my domain name (I would love to say that it was from GoDaddy in protest of their SOPA stance, but it was a different company and purely a financial decision).  As I was typing in all the information, I realized how upset I would have been if I’d already transferred my site and then received the lower price notification! Hopefully their system would have flagged me and left me in blissful ignorance.

[For those of you who are curious, as soon as my new website launches – which will be for my own business – I will be sure to let everyone know!]

My latest procrastination paying off example happened last week. Ever since the the not so pleasant experience of getting my car serviced, I’ve known that I needed needed new tires. Well, it’s been two months and now I really need new tires. I finally developed an action plan, which fell through (who knew they didn’t have tire coupons in the paper any more?!?!?). My lack of momentum took over until last Friday, LivingSocial ran a daily deal on tires at a store that offered the original size, much longer warranty and has a gagillion locations across town. My tires have been ordered and should arrive this weekend.

I laughed at the moral of the story being that procrastination is a virtue. That is so un-me. I am a planner at heart and get so anxious when I have unresolved issues. Am I alone in this or should I try to accept the lesson? Are there other interpretations?