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For my regular readers, this post is a lot different from every single post that has previously been published on this site.

This difference is not due to the actual content of said post, but rather the timing, and more specifically, when this post was created.

You see, all my previously published posts were written well ahead of my self-imposed publication deadlines (3am CST Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday).

Even the first posts to grace this site when it went live on April 23, 2018 (I have Pretty Much Made Every Mistake In The Book and A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step,) were created the month prior when I first bought the domain name.

It is now Saturday, September 21st, and less than 12 hours before my Sunday post is set to go out into the world (I actually have much less time as I have to leave in about 75 minutes to pick up my daughter and if I cannot complete this post in that time frame I will not be able to return to it until after she goes to bed (which can be close to midnight on a weekend).

I have quite a formidable reserve of articles I have already written, dressed up and in “ready to publish status.”

[I just checked and there are 34 such posts that are just waiting patiently in line to be released.]

So for me creating this “last minute post” is actually not done out of necessity, but more as a nod to my younger years.

Apart from the title, I did not preformulate the content of this post until the moment I sat down in my home office.

So I now find myself sitting in front of my computer with my precious alone time slowly dwindling and creating this content on the fly.

So lets begin and see if this experiment goes up in flames or if the ole boy still got it.

…

Xrayvsn: The Younger Years.

If I were to describe myself (wait, I’m actually doing that now), I would refer to myself as an incredible procrastinator.

Book reports, essays, and various projects for all sorts of school subjects would always be left to the last minute for completion.

I could not bring myself to even attempt to get things prepared for the assigned task until the final countdown clock in my head (which started the evening before the deadline) started going off and sending warning signals for me to take action.

It seemed like having a fast approaching deadline created the ideal situation in my head for the creative juices to get flowing.

I was very fortunate that, even back then, I had a way with words and that, coupled with my typing skills (can comfortably type around 60-80 words/min) would often bail me out of my bad habits.

As my grades never suffered, I never had any reason to change my modus operandi and continued this practice from grade school all the way through college.

Procrastination.

When you describe someone as a person who procrastinates a lot, it conveys a negative connotation.

Sometimes that person gets unfairly labeled as lazy or one who does not take initiative.

I admit, I sometimes feel those descriptors are spot on when doing certain activities, particularly ones I dread doing and not looking forward to.

But I also feel that sometimes that impending and rapidly approaching deadline can bring out the best in us as well.

I do not think I could have written better essays in school if I had started them days in advance rather than at the last minute.

In fact I would say that I may unlock an extra creative gear in my mind when there is an element of stress involved.

We have heard of individuals displaying superhuman feats of strength when faced with a crisis, coined, “hysterical strength.”

So why can’t the same phenomenon be applied to those of a mental nature?

I know there are some physicians that thrive in chaos.

In fact these individuals often find themselves gravitating towards certain specialties, such as emergency medicine and trauma surgery.

When the world is falling apart around them, they remain calm and collected.

It is indeed as if the world slows down, similar to “bullet time from the Matrix.”

Now writing a post for a physician finance blog in the last hours before the publishing deadline does not make me Neo in any way imaginable.

But I will tell you that I am actually enjoying this process right now and feel like my creative stream of old is starting to flow again all because of this new time constraint I have imposed on myself.

So why the change, Xrayvsn?

You might now find yourself asking what happened to make me change my approach to writing content for this blog.

What I currently do, which is stockpiling content for later publication, is a complete 180 from my carefree younger years.

Well the biggest change is that life happened.

Adding a kid to the mix has no longer allowed me the luxury of known dedicated “me time” any more.

The difficulty level is raised even higher as I choose to remain anonymous for the sole purpose that my daughter does not find out about my writing (primarily the divorce issues I have written about) until she is much older and ready.

This relegates me to writing content only when she is either sleeping in on the weekend, sleeping over at a friend’s house, or some other school function that has her out of the house.

Because these free time periods are unpredictable and of uncertain length, whenever I happen to find myself in the midst of one I feel the urge to batch create content.

That last sentence put me over the 1000 word count, which is around my average post length.

I accomplished that in about 35 minutes of screen time so I am pretty impressed and have actually met my deadline (and soon will have to get ready to pick her up from her party).

The next 5-10 minutes or so will be scrounging around the internet looking for photos that I can add to complete this post.

Hopefully you feel there was not a drop off in quality from this post when compared to my previous ones (let me know either way in the comments.)

I just wanted to see if I can do it like the good old days and whether my mind is still capable of some last minute heroics.

Note:

If you are in search of financial help, please consider enlisting the service of any of the sponsors of this blog who I feel are part of the “good guys and gals of finance.”

Even a steadfast DIY’er can sometimes gain benefit from the occasional professional input.