Procrastination

PROCRASTINATION.
Whether they're in the top of their field or novices, ninety percent of people in North America tend to
procrastinate. If you're in the other ten percent, pat yourself on the back (and consider walking out of the
room backwards because the rest of us REAL people might feel the need to let the door hit you in the butt
as you leave).

Why Do We Procrastinate?

There are various reasons why a person might procrastinate.

1. Rejection. Other people's responses to your work are not in your control. Fear of rejection can cause
anxiety and interfere with your ability to complete a project.

2. Success. Once you become successful, you want to stay successful. For some people, it may be easier
just to fail and have no further expectations placed on them.

3. Disorganization. With supplies scattered and notes unorganized, you may feel
like getting work done is hopeless.

4. Feelings of being overwhelmed. Having to complete a story or illustrations can be
a daunting task.

5. Perfection. Setting standards too high can make you accomplish less.

6. Lack of time/family obligations. Kids, spouses, parents, out of the home jobs, other obligations can make
you put aside working.

7. Lack of Incentive. When you're only accountable to yourself why should you worry about getting things
done?

8. Creative Block. Whether you just can't get going for lack of ideas or whether there's a missing piece
you have to find before you move forward, this one is a major problem with creative people.

9. Self Doubt. When you second-guess your ability to produce anything worthwhile you may stop working
altogether.

Overcoming Procrastination

Bring on those Rejections:
Perhaps you procrastinate because you worry about spending too much time on a project only to have it
rejected. If this is your problem, you have to think about the goals you wish to achieve and accept what you
must do to meet them. Realize everything worthwhile takes time and effort to achieve. The feeling you get
from completing a project can be as satisfying as an acceptance. Yes, your project may
be rejected but then again maybe it won't.

Every writer, illustrator, performer, and editor has at some time in their career been shot down, whether it
was just simply one of their ideas or a complete project.

Wear your rejections with pride. They prove that you have enough strength to put your work out there.
Many people don't have the courage to take that first step.

Don't let rejections give you that "I'll never do this' attitude. Take an, 'I'll show them' attitude. Revise the
story if need be, but get it back out there.

Create For YOU:
An award-winning author once said that winning a major award for a first book is something she wouldn't
wish on anyone.

Why? Once you win an award you feel like critics are watching your every move as you write or illustrate,
making sure all your books from then on are of award-winning caliber. That can be enough pressure to
make anyone stop working.

If this is a problem, turn off your web-cam.

Just kidding.

Think about why you create. Most of us don't create because we want to. We create because something
deep inside compels us to. We have stories to tell.

Non-production can leave a void in your heart. Fill it by writing to satisfy yourself.

Remember who your audience is. Children will always enjoy good stories and good illustrations. If your
book doesn't win an award, so what? I have yet to see a child turn away a book because there was no gold
sticker on it.

Get Organized:

I don't mean you have to go through your pantry, fridge and spice cabinet and put everything in
alphabetical order. I said get organized, not be some kind of compulsive organizational food maniac.
Make sure everything you need is within hands-reach. Check your ink cartridge levels and your paper
supply. Gather all your notes or any other research you may need and put them together or pin them up on
a corkboard. Don't waste valuable time searching or retrieving things.

Don't Let things Overwhelm You - Start Small:
Break everything up into baby steps. Start by taking ten minutes to work on a project. Revise or write one
scene or one chapter at a time. Do touch ups to an illustration. As a large project, your work in progress
may look impossible, but by breaking it up into a bunch of smaller tasks, it will become more manageable.
As you get into a routine of working everyday, gradually add onto the amount time you spend working.
Get all your works in progress together. Put them in order of importance or due dates. If they're all equally
important, start with the project that has the least amount of work left to be done on it. By the time you get
to the largest project the fact that the others are completed should give you the oomph to finish it.

Get Over Perfectionism:
Commit to working towards achievable goals. Achievable - meaning not perfect.
Nothing is perfect.
First drafts or rough sketches are a place you can allow yourself to write or draw garbage. Use them to get
the story fleshed out.
Use later drafts to fill in any blanks your first draft leaves in the story. Even third or fourth drafts won't be
perfect. If they were, we wouldn't need critique groups and editors wouldn't have jobs.

No Time?

Make time.

Use your lunch hour and coffee breaks to write, or write during slow times on a note pad.

Take a small hands free tape recorder with you while you drive to record notes or ideas for sketches.
During your child's soccer practice take story notes or make rough sketches.

Keep soap crayons or waterproof paper and a pen in the bathroom for when inspiration hits you while
you're in the shower or bath.

When tidying your house, use time you'd normally waste.

For example - When you use the bathroom, wipe the sink clean. The next time you're in there, clean the
toilet. You can also use the time your kids are in the bathtub to clean the bathroom.

Throw a load of laundry in the washing machine or do other cleaning chores while you plot out your next
chapter. When you finally sit down at your computer you'll be able to use this time to write instead of just
thinking about what to write.

My Family Needs Me:

Family interruptions or obligations are often used as a way to procrastinate. Yes, your family is very
important, but so is your work. The fact that you do it from your home should not change anything, and just
like any other professional you have to make time for both.

If possible, have your own workspace and keep regular working hours. Let your family know not to
interrupt while you're working unless it's an emergency.Set your baby's swing up beside you while you
work. That way the baby can see you and you can still pay attention to him.

Get a toy computer or art supplies so young children can 'work' beside you. It's very important for a child's
development for her to learn how to entertain herself.

It's also good for them to see you at work. This way they learn to value your work.

Give a needy child a time limit. For example, "If you let me write for one hour and I'll
play with you for the next hour." Set a timer if you need to.

Make play dates with other parents. Send your kids to their house one day. Take their kids the next. This
also gives your children an important lesson on how to interact with other people when you are not around.

Pay an older child to baby-sit while you work or get your spouse to take the kids out for 'daddy' or
'mommy' time.

If you have elderly parents interrupting you try to make them understand that what you do is your job.
Keep your own workspace here too. Your parents need to know your working boundaries.

Share your work with them. Let them make suggestions. They may see things in a different way than you
do and may be able to find the puzzle pieces you're missing.

Start a Creative Guilt Group:

Every week I get together with two other creative friends. During our sessions we share what we did the
previous week and make a list of things we have to get done during the next week. We take down each
other's lists as well. If, by the next session, we don't get everything done we had planned to get done we
feel guilty.

We've all had times where we've rushed to get things done on the day of the meeting just to say we did it.
The key word is 'accountability.' Make yourself accountable to others that way you feel you have to get
things done.

Jumpstart Your Brain:

Jumpstarting your brain can be as easy as putting on your left sock before your right sock or vice versa in
the morning. Any kind of slight change in routine will make your brain work harder than if you do things
the same way every morning.

Exercise before your sit down to work, whether it's just a walk with the dog or a twenty-minute full body
workout. Physical movement makes the blood flow faster to your brain, making it easier to concentrate.
If you have missing puzzle pieces that are preventing you from moving forward in your project, go out of
your way to find them. Read back through past chapters to see if you can find out what's missing. Go to the
library to research. If you can, visit the place your story is set, or at least read about it. If you're an
illustrator, study samples of what you're trying to illustrate.

Sometimes thinking about your work in progress just before you go to sleep can help your dreams work the
story out. Keep a pen, flashlight and notepad beside your bed to write notes as soon as you wake up.
To re-energize try taking a day off and do something different. I don't mean you have to jump out of a
plane (unless you really want to). Do something pleasant for yourself. Go to the spa for the day, or go to
the lake with a net and catch some small sunfish for your home aquarium - anything that you've never done
before.

Fill up your inner being so you have the energy to give you a new perspective when you go back to your
work in progress. Giving yourself a day off can also reinforce the idea that your writing is an actual job too.
Something as simple as reading a book can help to jumpstart your imagination. If you procrastinate by
reading, then read absolutely nothing for a week.

Go to a museum and look at paintings.Writing exercises can also renew your creativity.
Try this:
Grab a subject. If you can't think of anything, try whales.
Now take five minutes and write or doodle something on that subject. Write the first
thing that comes into your head. (Please don't actually write or doodle ON a whale).
Allow yourself to write garbage. If you do this every day, eventually you'll have
something you can use for a story.

Can I really do this?

Self-doubt is probably the biggest reason people procrastinate. Most artistic people are prone to
second-guess themselves. It's as much part of us as the work we do and that's okay. If we didn't doubt
ourselves, we wouldn't search out the critiques or the editing which forces us to improve our work and
make our stories great.

Remember it's okay to doubt your work, but don't doubt yourself as a writer or an illustrator because
that's what you are. And no matter what anyone says, that's what you were meant to be.