Originally published on the Story Queens website in 2017.

I’m going to tell you all my guilty and terrible secret. I procrastinate. Everyone does. But recently I procrastinated so much I let a deadline pass by.
I should have had my next book written and published by now.
And it’s not.
Now, of course I didn’t just spend the last two months twiddling my thumbs. That’s not how procrastination works. I did lots of things. I just didn’t do the one thing I was meant to be doing.
I procrastiplanned (the act of going over plans for action over and over but not taking the action), I procrastiworked (finding other things that needed to be done that didn’t really need to be done), I procrasticleaned. Guys. Seriously, I even shampooed my mousepad.
Procrastination is a terrible monster in the lives of creative, self employed people. Sometimes we slay that monster in great feats of productivity, and sometimes that monster comes and sits on us and laughs as we squirm about uselessly under its weight.

Why do we Procrastinate?

In my opinion it all comes down to one thing. Fear.
Fear of failure- “I’m going to stuff it up. I should just give up.”
Fear of doing the work- “There’s too much to do. Where do I even start?”
Fear of not being enough- “It will never be as good as I want it to be, so why bother?”
Do these sound familiar to you?
In Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art” he describes these sorts of feelings as Resistance. “Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole.” He describes it as an almost sentient force of malevolence, that stands between you, and your goals. The bigger the goal, the bigger its potential to improve your life, the more Resistance you will feel.
When we let these feelings and fears take over, we procrastinate.

How do we defeat Procrastination?

Remind yourself that you are the boss. Not Resistance. Not fear. There is something you want to do, to create, to achieve. You WANT that. Go get it. Fears be damned.
Easier said than done, right? Here are some tips to help.

1. When the job feels too big, make it smaller. “Write a book” is a huge project, but “Write 200 words” is small. Break things up into less daunting tasks.
2. When your head is too busy, full of distractions trying to lure you away – other tasks that NEED (read: don’t need) to be done, or a shiny new idea – make lists. Get it all out of your head and onto paper or note-taking software. It will keep till later, and the act of writing it down as a to-do-later will free your headspace.
3. Give yourself rewards and bribes. “I will write at the cafe, and if I write 2000 words I get to have that chocolate brownie.”
4. Make yourself a visual reminder of what you want to achieve. Writing a book? Print out a picture of the finished book cover. Stick it up above where you work to remind yourself of where you want to get to.
5. Take breaks. It’s okay to not be working flat out all waking hours. Research has shown that taking breaks makes you more productive between the breaks. One study suggests a 20 minute work/5 minute break cycle is optimal (known as the Pomodoro technique). Find what works for you. This gives you the same downtime procrastination offers, but keep it timed and then get back to work again.
6. Use what I like to call the Nike philosophy- “JUST DO IT.” Scream it at yourself a few times, and if that doesn’t help, go and have Shia LaBeouf yell it at you. Really. Sometimes it’s just the kick up the butt you need.
7. Still scared you’ll suck? Remember the catch phrase “Dare to be Bad!“. Print it out and stick it over your work area if you need to. It’s a good reminded to cut back on the self criticism a bit and just create unhindered by expectation.

What do you do when Procrastination wins?

As with all things in life, you pick yourself up again. First, forgive yourself. Nobody succeeds 100% of the time. And we learn the most from “failure”.
Guilt is a useless feeling, so try to channel it instead into motivation. Turn your story into an underdog story- from failure to hero! See it in your mind, that success just ahead of you! Embrace that feeling, and keep moving forward.
Remember, you NEVER truly fail, you’re just pre-successful 😉
I missed my deadline, but I’m still writing. Scene by scene, I’m going to keep moving forward. I AM making progress. I WILL finish this book, and another, and another.
Do you procrastinate (come on, telling the truth now!)? How do you get yourself back to work when procrastination takes hold?

Update!

This blog post was written originally in 2017. Flash forward to 2019 and the books I was talking about at the beginning, that I had missed the self-imposed deadlines for, are done. I did finish the books as planned, because procrastination can be defeated! Check them out-