Putting the Pro in Procrastination
Image Description: A woman holds up her hands to her head in frustration. Her face is a clock and she only has five minutes until 12. Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay.
You would have been reading this blog post much sooner…if only I could have brought myself to write it. It has been swimming around in my brain for a few months. I even jotted down notes about it a few weeks ago. Then I thought about it some more. Then I stopped thinking about it and got busy with some work things. Then I started thinking about it again, only this time it was not about what to write but fretting about not writing it. I forced myself to reread a previous blog post about giving myself grace. Then I got back to focusing on other stuff. Having a creative responsibility seems to always bring out my best ability to finish my taxes, declutter my house, file papers, catch up on e-mails, and do all the work around the work. Well, heck, at least the taxes are no longer hanging over me. I finally gave myself an ultimatum to finish the blog by Friday. Only some personal stuff conspired with some work stuff in collaboration with worry about some other work stuff, and a beautiful day outside, and, well, you can see where this is going.
This is what it means to be a procrastinator. And not just a run-of-the-mill procrastinator. If I could get paid for every minute I spend planning to do the work, sighing about not doing the work, ruminating over why I am not doing the work, and prioritizing other work to take up the time that this work could take, I could really make a living at this. I would put the Pro in Procrastination.
Does this sound at all familiar?
Most creatives have those times when we put off the work as long as we can…and sometimes even longer. If not handled carefully, master procrastinators create a reputation of unreliability. Procrastination has the potential to affect others (a creative partner, a client, a colleague who asked for feedback, family who are sick of hearing the angst). Yet nobody seems to beat us up about our procrastination as much as we do ourselves.
It is important to realize there may be underlying reasons behind procrastination Not all apply to everyone though there can be overlap.
Perfectionism: For the perfectionists among us, it can be hard to discern between work that needs to be done to the highest of standards and work that can be completed that is merely competent. Even seeing the words “merely competent” probably sends shivers down the spines of the perfectionists. The problem is that trying to do everything to the highest of standards may be an impossible goal and can result in not doing the work at all or delaying and delaying it until it we are so rushed that the work can’t even aspire to be merely competent.
Fear of Failure: Sometimes this goes hand in hand with perfectionism. Naturally we want all our creative work to be of quality, resonate with others, and meet our own concept of success. Yet we often have unrealistic ideas of what success means. We can forget that the road to success is paved with failure (or, as I prefer to say, experiments). It may seem like it easier to delay doing something if we are concerned it may not work out.
Overcommitment: Many creative people have a lot of irons in the fire, including various creative projects, work that sustains us financially, family commitments, and maintaining friendships and networks. It is easy to overestimate what we can do and we can underestimate our own ability to do it in our waking hours. This can lead to overcommitting to things and then realizing that we are exhausted and frustrated in trying to achieve them all. Burnout and procrastination can be a vicious cycle.
Pressure: If you were one of those students who always managed to cram the night before an exam or a paper was due, you may have passed your class by the skin of your teeth, but you likely weren’t doing yourself a service for life. Many of us have bought into the mythology that we do our best work when we are under pressure. While there can be a certain euphoria that comes from pulling an all-nighter, it isn't the best regular practice for our health or the quality of our work either. Leaving work until the last minute also leaves no room for error if something else unexpectedly comes up. Delay and delay and delay and then life gets in the way.
Passion: Who would ever think of passion as a problem? But there is a fine line between wanting to maintain passion for our creative work and expecting that passion to be a constant. This is a variation of pressure when we feel that we can only do our best work when we are feeling inspired or “in the zone.” While it feels good to imagine our creative lives as a state of everlasting passion, so much of what makes our work possible and better are the mundane things - organizing, research, practice, revision, tending to our business. If those are not at the heart of what motivates you to create, it can be easy to avoid doing them.
So what is a procrastinator to do? First thing is not to try to overcome procrastination altogether. Since it is a symptom of other challenges to our creative resilience, it is really something to manage rather than to cure. These are a few approaches to managing these underlying challenges:
Prioritize your time. One of the best forms of time management is to get comfortable with prioritizing the things that demand your time. Some things may always have to be top priority (family, making a living, taking care of your health, etc.). Some things you may want to be included in your priorities (devoting time to your art, connecting with others around art, spending time in nature, for example). Everything is not equal on the To-Do list.
Say no to lower priorities and yes to rest: Some things may have to be lower on the priority list even if that means you have to say no to requests of your time more (check out my previous blog on Saying Yes to Saying No). It may be helpful to write these out as priorities or even schedule them into your calendar. Some folks even color code their calendars with high/medium/low priority items as a visual reminder. While you are there, if you find yourself regularly overcommitting yourself, also schedule in downtime. Rest not only allows our bodies to recuperate from our very full waking schedules, it is also essential for our brains and for our creativity. There is something magical about writing “Doing Nothing” into your schedule. Even more so when you stick to the plan.
Get in touch with your own time clock. Time management is not just about scheduling all the waking hours in a day, but being honest about your own energy and life realities. While many productivity hacks focus on specific times of day or lengths of time to work, you need to find what is right for you. While it may sound great, in theory, to wake up ahead of the sunrise to put in several hours on your Great American Novel, if that is not when you feel most energized or you teach at night, you might do better grabbing an hour at lunch or before bed. You can also look at different ways to stimulate creative energy. For some, it may be a short nap. For others, a vigorous walk. For others, ten minutes of meditation or interpretive dance. The key is to try different methods to see what works for you, not necessarily what I or any others recommend as a cure-all. The key is to aim for consistency so you can develop your mindful prep and creative time as a habit.
Designate deadlines. Sometimes these can be very easy - a show you have to prepare for, a grant you want to support your project, a story you have to file for a magazine, or a class assignment. Other times, you may have to construct your own deadlines by scheduling a work-in-progress presentation, having check-ins with an accountability partner or group, or building in rewards (such as extra do-nothing time after meeting a deadline). Whether it is a real deadline or one you concoct, it can be a helpful tool to getting the work done.
Do one thing at a time. This can be hard for those of us who are used to multi-tasking. But you really will be able to achieve more by breaking things into smaller, specific steps. For me, working on a new blog entry sounds so daunting. Even though they are short and focused, it’s rare that I can just sit down and write my blog entry from start to finish in one sitting. I have too many distractions. Instead, I will often devote 20 minutes writing down snippets of ideas as a stream of consciousness. Then I will leave it for a day or two and come back for another 20 minutes to re-read and build on these ideas. If I commit to dedicating 20 minutes every day for a week, I can write this blog without worrying that I will abandon it for other things. And, in reality, I leave some leeway in my schedule so, if I get in the groove, I have the option to devote more than 20 minutes each sitting. It feels less stressful to keep it a realistic amount of time and effort.
Create new habits. Remember those progress charts parents use where they add a star sticker every time their kid does something like brushing their own teeth, going potty, putting away their toys, or some other milestone of building habits and routines. There is no reason we can’t do this as adults. What if you put a sticker star on a calendar for every day you work on your creative project? There is something about visualizing your work that can help make it second nature. Similarly if you spread your work into task-size nuggets, you can check things off to see the progress you are making. And don’t forget to reward yourself in some way once you have reached a certain number of stars.
Be OK with your work being just OK. Perfectionists and failure fearers: this one may be the hardest recommendation of all. “Perfect is the enemy of the good” sounds like a nice catchphrase, but you still may feel very nervous not putting forth your best work. Yet not putting forth any work is not a workable alternative. If you find yourself regularly putting off finishing something because it isn’t quite right or you are worried it won’t turn out right, just try blaming it on those self-imposed deadlines. Make getting it done (in whatever form that may be) your goal rather than getting the perfect thing done. It will be a challenge to get comfortable with imperfection, but your work will ultimately be better for it and so will you. And, while you are at it, re-read what I had to say about failure.
Take screen breaks. I left this one for last because we often think we have less time than we actually do because many of us have traded in our downtime for screen time. Imagine our creative ancestors who lived in a world before electricity. While there were some creative things that could be done by candlelight, they had to be much more adept at scheduling in their time. If we took all the time we spent doomscrolling news sites, watching Tik-Tok videos, following a juicy thread on Twitter, going down a black hole of Wikipedia, or bingeing the latest streaming sensations, that could be just the amount of time that would be perfect to put in some time on our creative projects.
So stop reading this blog now and do some work on your project. Put the Pro in Progress rather than Procrastination.
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