{"id":19842,"date":"2020-09-19T11:36:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T11:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19842"},"modified":"2020-09-19T11:36:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-19T11:36:50","slug":"procrastination-chariots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19842","title":{"rendered":"Procrastination Chariots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you tend to leave things to the last minute, and then scramble around frantically trying to get them done in time?<\/p>\n

I certainly have been known to do this on occasion. For example, for nearly two years, I’ve been meeting with a few friends once a month to share songs<\/a> we’re working on. During this time I’ve written a new song<\/a> every month, and often do so in the few days before we meet. I may have various ideas for songs before then, but don’t usually do much with them until the last minute. In this case, I find that having the monthly deadline of our meetings helps.<\/p>\n

Before this group started meeting, I wrote songs when I felt inspired – sometimes I’d write several in a month, and at other times I didn’t write anything for ages.<\/p>\n

What I indulge in could be called a charet(te)<\/strong>, or “a period of intense work, especially group work undertaken to meet a deadline” [source<\/a>], a word that comes from the Old French charrete<\/em> (chariot).<\/p>\n

The sense of last-minute work apparently comes from the practice of students at the \u00c9cole de Beaux-Arts<\/em><\/a> (School of Fine Arts) in Paris working together furiously at the last minute to finish their termly projects, which would be collected on a charette<\/em>, a small wheeled chart. They were said to be working en charette<\/em> (“in the chart”), and the night before the deadline was known as la nuit de charette<\/em> (“charette night”). Any work not on the charette<\/em> was not accepted for assessment. The word and concept was borrowed into English in the mid-19th century [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n

\"Vintage<\/a>