If procrastination was a profession, I would excel at it. I'm always putting things off. There's always something else to do or someone to talk to. Check email for the 10th time in the last hour, hop on Facebook yet again to see if anything new has been posted in the last 15 minutes, send a few tweets and then scour the Twitter feed to see what everyone else is tweeting...
Of course I should start writing now, but I may as well make that phone call first. Then I'll get started.
But, oh wait! Now I've got to walk the dog.
You know, maybe I should take shower and have a cup of coffee first.
And then I really should catch up on some blog posts and do a little reading... it is part of studying the craft, after all.
Well, I would start now, but it's been more than an hour since I checked my email, so I really should take care of that first.
Ok, well, now I guess I'll get started -- oh, hey, look, it's lunch time already!
Inevitably, I feel bad when 6:30 rolls around and my husband come home and I realize I've only managed to write one or two articles. I vow that tomorrow I'll really crack down and get things done. Maybe even head to the local library in the hopes that it will limit distractions.
But the next day ends up being just like the day before that. And the day before that and the day before that. It's a vicious cycle.
At this rate, I'll never get started on my novel and it will take me the rest of my days to finish my non-fiction book. Nor will I be able to crack down to get queries out to other magazines to broaden my freelancing income and reach.
Luckily, I know what the problem is: I have too much time on my hands. It's summer, so I've stopped teaching. All I have at the moment is one English student for an hour each week. My vocal group has taken a summer break till the end of this month, meaning no weekly rehearsals and meetings. All there is for me to do is meet up with friends, walk and feed the dog, and do chores around the apartment.
When you have too much time, you tend to put things off because you can do them later. You have all that time ahead, so what's the point of doing it now when there's a dog to be walked, laundry to be folded, dishwashers to be (un)loaded? You can do all that writing stuff later.
And boy can the internet be a time suck! Writers are advised to have a LinkedIn account, a Twitter account, a blog, a Facebook account, a separate Facebook page, and all kinds of other social networks to help them market themselves and their books. These things take time. Not to mention that they're addictive.
Plus, you rely on your email for so much now -- submissions, queries, writing groups, communication with friends and family -- and there's that fear that you might get a reply from that editor or agent who will surely move on if you haven't responded to their email in at least 5-minute's time.
At first I was looking forward to my part-time working status and my free summers. "Just imagine all the writing work I'll get done," I naively told myself. Well, it's already mid-August and I haven't even been 1/4th as productive as I had planned.
I remember when I was in high school. I had school all day and rehearsals, dance classes, harp lessons, piano lessons, acting classes, and soccer practice after school. I had performances on weekends. And yet, I still found time to practice my instruments, get my homework done, take up scrapbooking, and have a social life.
Before I came to the Netherlands, I was teaching fulltime, giving dance lessons, working part-time at Bath and Body Works and My Gym, grading papers, performing, planning a wedding, and working on a Master's degree. Yet I still found time to continue my crafting, spend time with friends and family, deal with a long-distance relationship, and write a children's book.
Ironically, it seems that the busier you are, the more you get done. Because the fewer hours you have in a day, the more difficult it is to put things off. If you don't write during whatever window of time you can find, you won't be able to do it later. You'll be working, or sitting in class, or doing homework, or standing on the stage, or teaching, or wedding planning, or Skyping with your fiancé.
So the best way to stop procrastinating is to get busy. Fill the day up so there are just small snippets of free time. Get a full or part-time job, take up a hobby, plan frequent get-togethers with friends, take a class, teach a class, join a club.
And make sure when you do set aside time to write, that you do just that. Go out and write somewhere else if you have to. Find a writing buddy or join a critique group to hold you accountable.
Unfortunately, the hardest part is forcing yourself to do it and not be distracted by someone or something else.
Are you a master of procrastination? What do you do to nip it in the bud?
Image: gingerpig2000, Flickr
© 2011 Tiffany Jansen, writer
