Overcoming Writer's Procrastination

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

Thursday is my day to post to this blog.  I have it scheduled on my calendar and it's embedded in my mind, but somehow, regardless of how well organized (or not!) I am, Thursday sneaks up on me and many times I'm scrambling to post on time.

This certainly isn't a result of my lack of wanting to blog here at The Writer's Crate--absolutely not!  It's truly one of the items on my writing agenda that I look forward to each week.  I suppose being a full-time working mother of 8 kids could have something to do with my last-minute posts, but to be honest I don't think I can point the blame to that either.  No--I think I can be honest enough with myself as to why I tend to work off the adrenaline rush of the last hour and quite simply the bottom line is that I'm a procrastinator.

There, I said it!

I can't say this is always the case, but I've noticed over the past few years I've wandered over to the "other side" of time management, and it's starting to bother me just a bit.  Rather than complain and come up with excuses, I set out to find some realistic strategies that I could put into place, and I'm happy to report that I came upon a very helpful article titled "Overcome Procrastination with These Easy Strategies" written by Gail Brenner, PhD and author.

I love how she point blank says "If you're a writer, you're probably familiar with procrastination.  It descends like a haze.  It takes you over before you know it.  And there you are, checking e-mail for the millionth time rather than focusing on the task at hand."   This writer knows exactly what's going on inside of my "writer's mind" and for that I am grateful!  Not only did I not feel so alone after reading her article, it also helped me realize that with a little tweaking, I can turn this around and get back on task.

She lists boredom, fear, and limiting thoughts as reasons for procrastinating and then gives simple fixes for each.

I encourage you to visit this original article and then let me know if you have similar challenges and any clever ways of overcoming your procrastinating woes.