Three ways to beat procrastination for writers

I could procrastinate for Australia. I could. If it were an Olympic sport, I’d be the Torah Bright of Procrastination – only without the fantastic teeth … and I’d probably find a reason to put off the dancing…

Having said that, I am also a surprisingly productive person. I know. Oxymoron. I walk around and around and around a task, finding 8 million reasons NOT to do it. Until, finally, there are no more excuses and I think ‘oh well’ and get it done. The key is to fast-track the process – both the walking bit, and the actual doing.

You can’t be a freelance writer without understanding procrastination. You need to know that it is part of your life. You need to know that it will not go away (trust me, more than ten years into my writing-from-home career and it shows no sign of abating). But you also need to know that you will not get paid if you don’t learn to manage it.

So, how do I beat it? Why, I wondered when you’d get around to asking.

1. Bore yourself into submission.
Social media is a huge distraction when you work at home by yourself. Every day I begin by checking in on all my various social media accounts – and, oh my, I have a few – but it rarely takes long for me to realise that I’m flicking from one account to another waiting for something to happen. It rarely does. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. And once I’ve gone through that particular charade each day, I realise that my time is probably better spent elsewhere.

But I still let myself do it every day. I make time for it. Otherwise, I’ll wonder if I’m missing out.

2. Eat something – be it the frog or something tastier.
There’s a school of thought out there, inspired by Brian Tracy (and shared with me by Kelly Exeter), that says you need to get the worst thing off your To Do list first. I don’t necessarily follow that premise – for me, it’s all about doing something. I don’t just make a To Do list anymore, I actually timetable what I’m going to do. And if the first thing I do that day is to write a cheerful blog post rather than wading through the wording for a corporate report, well, at least I’ve made a start. I usually find that the getting started bit is the most important.

3. Start at the end if you have to.
In the good old days, before I had children, I used to sit down and write an entire article, from start to finish, in one hit. I wouldn’t start unless I knew I had time to finish. I’d write the opening sentence, always with an ending in mind, and off I’d go. Now, with so many different projects on the boil all the time – from features to fiction to podcasts to whatever – plus family commitments, I find it difficult to work like that. So I’ll write what I can. If I can start with the ‘box’ at the end, and get 200 words down, I’ll do that. Because it makes me feel like I’m making progress, which makes me feel happier about the whole task.

A few years ago, I wrote an article about procrastination for a magazine. The key finding: pushing past procrastination requires some pain. It means making ourselves do something that we’re finding – for whatever reason – uncomfortable. Perhaps we’re worried that we’re not good enough. Maybe the article we’re writing is complex and finding the right structure for it is just plain difficult. Maybe we’re in that awful ‘middle’ section of the novel, where the premise is outlined and now we need to escalate the story and take it forward.

Whatever the reason, it’s easy to walk around and around the problem, avoiding the pain of progress by cleaning the fridge or polishing the toaster.

One thing I’ve learned about myself over the years, however, is just how much I enjoy that feeling of peace that comes once the task is done. It’s a little Olympic medal that I can aim for every day. With a McTwist.

Are you a procrastinator? Any tips?

Allison Tait is a freelance writer with more than 20 years’ experience in magazines, newspapers and online publishing. During that time, her byline has been seen regularly in titles such as Madison, marie claire, CLEO, Cosmopolitan, Vogue Australia, Sunday Life, Spectrum (The Sydney Morning Herald), Essential (The Sydney Morning Herald), Weight Watchers, Australian Women’s Health, Voyeur,Qantas: The Australian Way and Elle, as well as House & Garden, Belle, Vogue Living, Australian Country Style and more. Allison is also one of AWC's amazing presenters for the courses Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1, Make Time to Write and Build Your Author Platform.

Alison blogs at allisontait.com

Twitter: @altait
Facebook: facebook.com/AllisonTaitWriter