Why I need better time management

I am procrastinating while I write this.

By reading an article about procrastination.

Specifically, why writers procrastinate.
It's definitely a trait that a lot of writers seem to share.  And I agree with the beginning of the article, the notion that it's because most writers were once the top of their English classes, and because those assignments came easy to them, they didn't have to work very hard to do well.

But I don't agree with the psychological discussion of how procrastinating is really the writer's attempt at self-sabotage.  I think it's simply that working hard at things is a skill that we don't always have, so when we do have to work hard at something, we don't know how.

Interestingly, this goes back to an article I read about gifted kids, about how putting them ahead a grade actually taught them how to work harder -- rather than leaving them where they are (or even red-shirting kids, which has become commonplace), which means that everything is easy for them, and as a result they don't learn how to work for things.

I have some experience with this.  I was considered gifted, and I skipped a grade.  It made me the smallest and youngest and often the most likely candidate for bullying.  But looking back, I can acknowledge that everything was still too easy.  I never had to study in order to do well -- reading the material and taking notes in class usually sufficed -- and I rarely ever had much homework, let alone anything I struggled with.  And any writing assignment I ever had, from grade school all the way until college, I could wait until the last minute to do and still get an A.

I don't think I learned to work hard enough.

Fast forward to now.  I am a good writer, and I know it.  I have a lot of good ideas and good plans.  But I struggle so much with achieving what I want, simply because I am not good at buckling down.

I don't, however, believe that this has to be the case for the rest of my life.  I just have to figure out how to teach myself better habits.