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When it comes to doing something you don’t want to do – but know you just have to – which kind of person are you? I mean, do you tend to just get it over with? Or do you put it off until the last possible minute?

Consider, if you would, this question: if the thing gets done in either case, then which method is better?

During the summer of 1973 (after a rather traumatic first year at Texas A&M University - um, can you say “D average?”), I just had to do something to get a jump on the next school year. (The problem, see, wasn’t that it was too hard – it was hard – but that I was having, er, too much fun to actually, you know, study.)

So I went to summer school (sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth).

Now to me, the idea of summer school always had a sortof, I don’t know, stigma to it. I mean, in high school, the poor unfortunates who had to attend summer school were usually (let’s see… how can we put this delicately?) the, er, underachievers. It was more along the lines of a remedial thing; nobody in their right mind ever actually volunteered for it.

But after that first year at University, I realized this summer school was a different sort of animal altogether. See, I had pretty much the same course options, but the main difference is that I could complete an entire semester in only six weeks! Whoa, Nellie; now that was a horse of a different color!

So instead of suffering through some subject that either scared (Analytical Geometry) or bored (History) me to death and suffering through it for 12-14 weeks, I could finish the thing quickly and move on. Now that seemed like the greatest idea since sliced bread!

Ironically (which as you know means made entirely of iron) enough, summer school turned out to be much easier than I expected. You see, in spite of the faster pace and more concentrated course load, there were other factors that helped to offset it.

For instance:

• Fewer distractions. You may remember my casually mentioning (about, oh, 50 times now) that during the regular year, I was a proud member of the Aggie Band/Corps of Cadets; extracurricular activities which demanded a tremendous amount of time. However, during the summer sessions the University held no non-scholastic activities at all, leaving us free to concentrate on classes.
• Lighter course load. In a typical semester, the course load could be anywhere from 12-16 hours per week (or more if you were really nuts!), depending on the major. But in summer school, it was usually more like 4-6 hours per week. Thus, though the courses were packed into a shorter period, they were perversely easier because there was a limit to what you could take at one time.
• I wasn’t alone. One of the coolest things I discovered about summer school was that everyone else there was just as dedicated to getting it done as I was; nobody attended summer school for the fun of it. I mean, why blow a perfectly good summer? So we were all in the same boat, so to speak, and consequently, it was easier to relate to others – and make new friends. We understood what we were all going through. That was tremendously important to me at the time.
• It was summer. Hey, after everything was said and done – it was summertime! The weather was beautiful (and so were the, um, girls… but I digress) and I had an unexpectedly great time. There were outdoor movies at the campus theater several nights a week. (I’ll never forget the lightning-laced yet rainless evening they screened Dracula and Wolfman!) Also, several nearby lakes were easily accessible on weekends, and going home to visit mom (and have her do the laundry – kidding!) only took an hour or so.

See, I discovered early that the anticipation of an unpleasant task can turn into a tremendous energy drain (sound of water being sucked down the drain). To make matters worse, the longer you dither around getting started, well, that’s even more energy wasted. (My friends the good Doctors Ellen and Robyn can tell you all about the harmful brain chemicals you produce from that kind of thinking. Highly recommended reading!)

No, it’s far better to just go ahead and do it – so you can quit thinking about it. You’ll discover more energy, more freedom, more je ne se qois (a French word that means yee-haw, get along little dogie!) in the long run because then you’ll have more energy to spend on (hopefully) more pleasant things!

As a matter of fact, even today, although the temptation to procrastinate is still there, I can still tell the difference – getting a chore done early so I can have fun later is ‘way more productive than putting it off until later.

How about you?

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