Putting Off Procrastination
Posted on | July 21, 2010 | 11 Comments
Writers often find the most creative excuses not to write. We will use anything from messy desks to low biorhythms to avoid getting down to business. Creativity is fragile, we think, and we mustn’t jostle it. I am as guilty of this as anyone. And I know that creativity isn’t fragile at all, it’s hale and robust, practically indestructible if you feed it well, but thinking of it as dainty is a convenient myth when I’m looking for an excuse.
I check my email. I check to see if anyone has responded to any of my Facebook or Twitter posts. I think of something clever to post on Twitter that will also show up on Facebook, which will give me an excuse to go back and check both of them again in a few minutes. I drink the last of the coffee and must make more. I fuss with my computer settings, telling myself that, in doing so, I’m making myself more productive. I fuss with my calendar settings, telling myself the same thing. (Excuses are elastic and adaptable, it seems.)
I have had two conversations in the past week about this habit of procrastination. It wasn’t until the first one that I recalled the length of time I have been a willing slave to it. As a grade school kid, I avoided picking up my text books, avoided sitting down to do my math or history homework, until it was often simply too late.
Once I remembered this, I started looking at what the mechanism was and it seems I want to avoid anything that feels, however irrationally, like it will be too difficult or complicated. Also, I fear doing something that seems it might be what is known as mind-numbingly boring or repetitious. I also notice that when I dive into something, no matter how complicated it is (or how boring), I am very good at figuring it out and getting it done, so the thoughts that come up to trigger my procrastination have little or no basis in reality. Imagine that. What a surprise.
With this new observational viewpoint, I am now beginning to be able to put a task on my daily calendar and know I will get to it and get it done. For example, I’ve been whining for months that I have a new idea for a novel that I wanted to write, but had no time to actually write it. I went on and on about how busy I was and won’t it be nice when I finally have the luxury of time to sit down and be creative rather than spin my wheels making a living. Well, now I have it on my daily calendar: “One hour a day, work on Old Magic”. I also have on my calendar a half hour three days a week to write blog posts.
Now, when the old thoughts come up, so does an annoying green reminder that in five minutes I need to be working on my book and I open the document and start working. It’s not brilliant every morning, but there’s no possibility of brilliance showing up if I’m not doing anything at all, so I let it be ugly and mundane and pedestrian and keep writing. It seems to be working.
(A nice side benefit of this is that, now that I actually am doing what I dream of doing, I have no more excuse not to be doing the things that make money. I don’t need to avoid them in order to have an reason to put off my creative writing. It all feeds on itself.)
As you can see, this is the half hour that I’m scheduled to write a blog post. I’m about to mark “completed” on the calendar entry.
Now I have to check my email, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Comments
11 Responses to “Putting Off Procrastination”
Leave a Reply
Keep Up with Geoff and Steve
And just for doing so, we'll give you our eBook, "Unleash Your Creative Writer", a $9.95 value FREE!
"Not just for writers, invaluable information for any artist."
Geoff was Featured Blogger!
– Advertisements –
 |
|
|
|
Join Us in our New Forum!
Learn Creative Writing
--==**==--
Who are these guys?
Law of Attraction Words
Search the Site
Recent Comments
- What’s In Your Plan? – Make Money by Marketing Your Online Business With Powerful Web Marketing Strategies! on I Resolve to Continue
- Marilyn Southmayd on Interview with Terrie Wurzbacher about Creativity
- Adam DeTroy on Post 21 – Daydream Yourself into Your Work
- Geoff on Do Marketing and Art Go Together?
- Kathy on Do Marketing and Art Go Together?
Tags
July 22nd, 2010 @ 7:37 am
what am I doing reading and responding to this post when I should be writing…LOL
Mtn Jim
.-= mtn jim fisher´s last blog ..Screw The Search Engines! =-.
July 22nd, 2010 @ 10:52 am
Yeah Jim, get to work.
July 24th, 2010 @ 9:47 am
I have this same procrastination problem with my daily exercise routine. I know that I must do it or spend the night jumping out of bed in pain, but there are so many other things that need doing first ;>)
Guess I’ll finish off this coffee and then get at it.
July 25th, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
It’s all very well when all you have is good old fashioned procrastination. At least you know when it’s cleared. But what would you do if you had a case of “I don’t really know if what I want to do is what I REALLY want to do” It’s not very solveable because even if you just go ahead and do it anyway, by tomorrow you want to do something else entirely.
July 25th, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
That sounds more like indecision than procrastination, but, yes, they can both have the same affect on you productivity.
One of the things we talk about in our creative writing course is that to get started, you just have to make a decision. There is no right or wrong one, just the one you make. (There’s a little more to it than this in the course, but this will do for this comment.) The other possibilities will still be there when you get this one done.
Then, once you’ve made the decision, you do have to see it through. If you don’t it goes right back to being an excuse not to write, and we already have enough of those so why add more?
For some people, no matter what the decision, in the morning they will question it. Even if it’s the proverbial “million dollar idea”. If you have this habit, notice it, accept it, realize that the “morning after” regret is just part of it, then keep moving forward anyway because it would have been the same no matter what decision you’d made.
July 25th, 2010 @ 1:45 pm
P.S. Also, be nice to yourself. You’re not the only person who does this. It’s just part of the process. When you realize that, it can make it a lot easier to incorporate it into your journey.
July 25th, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
It is almost scary the way you come out with stuff Geoff just as I am thinking it!
I have decided that my “I-am-so-busy-I’ll-write-when-things-settle-down” excuses are just not going to cut it anymore!
Your article inspired me to just do it already!
Thanks
July 25th, 2010 @ 4:36 pm
Putting off your “not-to-do” list is a severe form of procrastination.
Mtn Jim
mtn jim fisher´s last [type] ..Screw The Search Engines!
July 26th, 2010 @ 1:48 am
grrr if writing was the only thing – I don’t procrastinate. I write every day, scrawl, opinions, ideas, and just plain rubbish. It’s being brave to let them see the light of day that’s so challenging. One day in the future I may regret it.
July 26th, 2010 @ 9:11 am
Barb – I’m glad I was able once again to be a catalyst. Jim, some comedian once said, never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow.
Yes, eftrg, one day you may indeed regret it. Do something to get your voice heard. Posting comments on blogs is a good beginning.
November 25th, 2010 @ 1:10 am
[...] Couple that with spending five to ten minutes writing stream of consciousness (see here, here, here and here) and you have the possibility of creating the true life of a [...]