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Procrastination-- But I Have to Alphabetize Those Spices... By Nancy K. LaFever
As a professional fiber artist with more than ten years' experience, I'm familiar with production work, deadlines, and filling orders. (Yes, I'm responsible for unleashing 56 hand-crocheted ponchos on innocent fashionistas two seasons ago.) But there is some flexibility in my deadlines. I've built trusting relationships with my accounts. If my hand-dyed yarn supplier wasn't moved by her muse to dye midnight blue yarn that week, my customers are willing to wait. For me, this writing gig is different. My editor has hard deadlines dictated by the All Powerful Editorial Calendar. Admittedly, I'm new to this biz, but I have a much harder time with these deadlines. I remember putting papers off until the last minute in graduate school as I seemed to do much better under pressure. But writing a paper on "Research Methods and Statistical Analysis in Social Work" isn't the same as meeting an article deadline so you will get paid!
Barriers to getting the writing done take many forms. All self-employed, home-based creative types understand distraction. How often have we heard, "Honey, since you're home, could you call the credit card company and straighten out this mess?" Haven't we rationalized that watching "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" will give us new material? In early spring, watching bluebirds in my backyard trumps writing. We all need to recharge that creative battery at times. But I've found for me, distractions, rationalizations, and even recharging can be just the excuse I need to enter the Procrastination Zone.
Procrastination for me isn't writer's block. If I actually sit my butt down in front of the PC, the writing usually starts to flow. My current procrastination mode is more like an overwhelming urge to build an elaborate fort for my cat out of bed pillows. (Oh, but he loves it!) Or it might take the form of e-mailing people I don't even like, although it is fun to rub their noses in my new status of published writer. Maybe you think it's about time you learned to make Béarnaise sauce. I remember a neighbor in our apartment building who had been studying for the bar exam for days. He came out on the deck determined to pound in all the nail heads that had popped up on the deck floor. It was critical that he accomplish the task at that moment. Fill in your own procrastination mode adventures here: _________. Don't they all seem like viable activities in that stalled brain of ours?
OK, we confess we're doing it. How do we move on and get back to work?
Pick a really boring activity. What is the most tedious and boring activity you can think of? It has to be so boring that you run screaming back to your laptop. How about a phone conversation with your hypochondriac mother-in-law? And you aren't allowed to tell her you must hang up because the house is on fire. Your spouse is a compulsive packrat who has coupons from 1998 included in his stash. How about pulling the expired grocery store coupons? What about watching infomercials? No, not the ones that are inadvertently funny-- those don't count. It has to be celebrities hawking cosmetics for hours or something comparable.
Guided Imagery. (No, this is a different kind-- we're not going to your happy, safe place!) Ok, relax in your chair and take some deep breaths, releasing them slowly. Now, imagine that you are back working in Corporate America. Can you see your tiny cubicle? Do you hear the bad radio station that your co-worker plays? Do you smell the Italian sub with extra onions that someone is eating at 9:15 in the a.m.? Ok, take more slow, deep breaths-- you're hyperventilating. Now, visualize your Outlook schedule for today. Do you see that you have back-to-back meetings all day? Isn't the two to five o' clock meeting's agenda rewriting the company mission statement for the eighth time?
One or both of the above exercises should snap you right out of procrastination mode. The guided imagery tour through corporate world does it for me. I've been there and would do almost anything not to go back! It's an effective motivator to get me writing again. As they say in AA, admitting you have a problem is the first step. Once you recognize the procrastination mode approaching, you can implement some tricks of your own.
With my most recent writing assignment, I noticed that if I forced myself to get through that first draft, no matter how rough, I could give in to some stalling behaviors. More seasoned writers advise it and it seemed productive to me-- let the draft go and come back to it later. But I have to set some kind of realistic timeframe. It's usually about the time it takes to make that kickin' fort for the cat or indulge in a mini-binge on my three favorite food groups explore-- salt, sugar and fat.
Nancy LaFever is a writer, fiber artist, psychotherapist, and chemical dependency counselor. She tries really hard not to do more than one at a time-- it confuses people.
She currently is a contributing editor for Crafts Business magazine and writes from her home in the countryside in central Ohio.
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