We’ve all been there—desperately searching for any task to be completed other than writing. There’s nothing like staring at a blank page to make laundry, cleaning the bathroom, mopping or taking out the trash look so good.
Meet procrastination—the habit that keeps writers from writing. It’s what forces us down the rabbit hole of YouTube and what has us launching Netflix instead of working on our pages. It’s why we flee from that insistent cursor that waits for words to pour from our fingers.
Procrastination happens to everyone. None of us are immune. But there are tricks to keep moving in the right direction.
But first, let’s define terms:
Procrastination is the avoidance of specific tasks by postponing or delaying them until it is no longer possible to put them off (usually when we’re in a panic, crunching a deadline and pulling our hair out).
Avoidance, on the other hand, is a more general act of pushing things away and not doing them. It’s not as well defined as procrastination and manifests as more of a pattern than a habit.
Both are unhealthy and trigger a significant amount of stress and anxiety.
Procrastination is not a time-management issue. It is not a lack of self-discipline. It is tied to negative feelings of stress and anxiety. It’s a way of avoiding less-than-pleasant tasks for more rewarding ones, or at least less onerous ones. Basically, it’s how we react to tasks we don’t want to do or are fearful of doing for some underlying psychological reason, such as fear of failing.
The trick is to manage the trigger and reduce the stress to allow for productivity to happen. Getting rid of the negative association helps. Luckily, there are many ways to do this.
Tips for Breaking Through:
Forgive Yourself
Beating yourself up about procrastinating or being behind is not helpful. Accept that you are behind and forgive yourself. Start with a clean slate. Studies show that forgiving yourself can alter future behavior. It’s not a cure, but it is a tactic that helps.
Be Your Own Therapist
(Or hire a professional therapist or creative coach.) Figure out what is the root cause of your avoidant behavior. Is it a specific task or approach that is derailing you? Is it a lack of self-confidence? You can’t fix what you haven’t identified. Figure out what is causing you to delay work and then build strategies to get around those issue.
Examine Your Task List
Are there items you can delete or make easier on yourself? For example, if editing your manuscript is causing you stress, is there a writer’s community you could join to get constructive feedback and a plan for revision? Or maybe there’s a book or class you could take on revision that would help lay out a roadmap to follow. Or perhaps a creative consultant who could guide your efforts. Try checking out the revision blogs on Figments & Fables (NaNo: Now What?). The point is to simplify when possible or get help.
Dump Old Tasks
Do you have items on your To Do list that have been there since 2017? Dump them. If you haven’t gotten to them by now, you are not likely to get to them in the near future either. Take them off the list and remove the guilt associated with them. There is no one demanding you finish that first book, especially if you have moved on and don’t believe in it anymore. It’s okay to stop and take it off your list. Obviously, I’m not talking about removing necessary items like overdue taxes or client work or anything else you committed to finish for a third party, but we are often our own worst clients. Dump work or activities that no longer work for you.
Analyze What’s Left
Now take a close look at your To Do list and decide whether each item on it is worth your time and effort. What is the item’s ROI (return on investment)? Will it get you where you want to go now as opposed to when you put it on the list? Or is it a holdover or outdated in today’s market? Our world changes fast. What was wise two years ago is no longer valid in many markets. Update your list. Streamline it and prioritize it.
Break To Do Lists into Single Tasks
Don’t put a huge item on the list. Break it down into its component parts. This helps prevent feeling overwhelmed and makes it easier to tackle your list. Besides marking those smaller items off your list one-by-one boosts your mood and helps keep you motivated to keep going.
Streamline Your Process
get organized and figure out how you work, then create forms, lists and plans to help you keep going without extra effort. Create systems when a) they help you stay on track, b) are easy to follow, and c) work for you and not the other way around.
Get Organized
Just as cleaning the clutter from your office can help you focus better, cleaning your digital space helps too. Backup everything and then back it up again. Once you have safely saved everything, delete old projects (except those needed as samples for new work). Toss early drafts and extra copies of files. Organize your files for ease of use and reference. Be sure to go through your mailboxes too. Get rid of those coupons that expired months ago. Dump client emails into folders (if needed) and delete anything that will not help you now or in the future.
Help Someone Else
Sometimes helping someone else with their work or by sharing advice can help you break through procrastination. It is energizing. Volunteer with a writing program. Offer to help at a school. Join a writers’ critique group. Teach literacy at a local library or county program.
Pretend You Have an Assistant
Write out instructions for tasks you are avoiding as if you are going to hand it off to someone else. Sometimes the act of breaking it down for another is enough to see how easy it would be to finish ourselves. It also allows us to get a bit of perspective and distance on the task, breaking the personal stress associated with it.
Do the Worst First
Once you have revised your To Do list, tackle the items in order of difficulty. This may be difficult in the sense of difficult to do or difficult to begin. In other words, get the worst bit done first so you can focus on easier, more appealing tasks later in your day. Putting it off until later in the day only sets you up for more procrastination. Plus the dread and guilt you will carry from procrastinating will affect all of the other work you attempt that day.
Bribe Yourself
If you need to get a specific task done that you have been avoiding, come up with a bribe that will get you moving. Maybe it’s devoting an entire day to that task and allowing yourself to take off whatever is left of the day off once you finish. Or maybe it’s allowing yourself a special treat (like a massage or going out to lunch with a friend) when you’ve completed the onerous task. Figure out what will get you moving and then commit to the arrangement like it’s a contract with a client—unchangeable and binding.
Accept Your Mood Where It Is
You don’t have to be in the perfect mindset to be productive. All you need to do is to begin. If you want to write, write when you feel bad and good. If you only write when you feel the muse, you will never finish anything. Accept that you are not feeling it and then start writing anyway. Give yourself ten minutes to write. It can be anything. It doesn’t have to be your main project. Just write. By the time you finish that ten minute exercise, most likely you will feel like continuing. If you are still not in the mood, try writing for another ten minutes. Keep doing this until you feel like writing or you finish your task for the day. You may not feel it at any point during the exercise, but you will end up with words on the page and, even if they are terrible words, you can edit them later. You can’t edit a blank page.
Give Yourself Permission to Write Badly
This is perennial advice because it works. Trying to write the perfect sentence is a recipe for procrastination and negativity. Perfect doesn’t exist. There may be flashes of it in your work, but perfection is unattainable. Do your best and accept it as that. If you wrote a piece that is lacking, set it aside for revision. You can make it better.
Be Positive
It is proven that negative thoughts and conversation breeds more negativity. Positivity works the same way. Find people who will build you up and support you. Dump those people who drag you down or feed your negativity. This means getting out of those groups that breed anger and criticism. Swap them for groups that nurture you and bring out your best qualities. They are out there. Seek them out. It also means stopping the stream of negative self-talk, which is a terrible habit and needs to stop.
Have any other tips to add? Post them below.