Procrastination for the ex-professional
Right now, I’m stuck. Stuck somewhere around two-thirds through the sequel to Death in Focus, stuck with how best to market Death in Focus, and stuck with my usual go-to to clear my head, writing fan-fiction. I know where I want my sequel to go, but I don’t see how to get there, and “just writing” isn’t really helping me right now.
So I thought I’d muse about procrastination, since I’m doing a lot of it.
The house is tidy. My chequebook (well, bank account, since I haven’t written a cheque in years) is reconciled. The washing is drying on the washing line. The latest domestic disaster has been dealt with (nail polish on bedlinen, since you ask, and no, it wasn’t me). I’ve read all my favourite websites, checked pathetically to see if anyone’s bought the book or even shelved it on Goodreads, pondered the appalling state of the world today and even done some exercise. Hitting the nadir, I ironed!
I always hope that some well-judged procrastination will clarify the story in my head. Sometimes, that even works. Usually, I manage an idea in the shower, or when I’m somewhere I can’t write it down – of course. Murphy’s Law is universal – but not for the last few days. Nothing has worked.
However.
Perhaps blockage is good for me.
That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But. As I’ve mentioned before, I used to be a financial type. I had deadlines and requirements and stress and long hours and enormous responsibility – people’s futures depended on the decisions I made. If I didn’t do tasks, it mattered. It really, really mattered – in both dollar and employee terms. So I always had to be focused on completing the task. Getting the job done. Finding the best solution available in the circumstances and the few moments in which the decision had to be made – and owning the results of that decision.
In those situations, you become very task and results driven. You also become authoritative – and sometimes authoritarian! There is a little time for discussion, but in the end you must make decisions on imperfect information and in a hurry. Nothing else matters but – again, for emphasis – getting the job done. You cannot put it down, let it wait a bit, put it off till tomorrow – in short, you cannot procrastinate.
You could say that you’re always on.
And then I retired, specifically so that I could publish Death in Focus and write more with the same characters. A series, I hope. We shall see.
It was a big change. But. But I’m still the same: target driven, authoritative (my child would say dictatorial, but she loves me anyway), decisive, do-it-now and do-it-better personality that I always was.
So what blockage is teaching me, is that sometimes it’s good to have to wait. Sometimes it’s good to stop, smell the flowers (or in my case weed the flowerbed so that next year there might be flowers), and simply be. It’s teaching me that you can’t always force things to happen on your own timetable.
Blockage is teaching me to relax. And for that reason alone, although I wish it would clear, it has value.
S.R. Garrae
So I thought I’d muse about procrastination, since I’m doing a lot of it.
The house is tidy. My chequebook (well, bank account, since I haven’t written a cheque in years) is reconciled. The washing is drying on the washing line. The latest domestic disaster has been dealt with (nail polish on bedlinen, since you ask, and no, it wasn’t me). I’ve read all my favourite websites, checked pathetically to see if anyone’s bought the book or even shelved it on Goodreads, pondered the appalling state of the world today and even done some exercise. Hitting the nadir, I ironed!
I always hope that some well-judged procrastination will clarify the story in my head. Sometimes, that even works. Usually, I manage an idea in the shower, or when I’m somewhere I can’t write it down – of course. Murphy’s Law is universal – but not for the last few days. Nothing has worked.
However.
Perhaps blockage is good for me.
That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But. As I’ve mentioned before, I used to be a financial type. I had deadlines and requirements and stress and long hours and enormous responsibility – people’s futures depended on the decisions I made. If I didn’t do tasks, it mattered. It really, really mattered – in both dollar and employee terms. So I always had to be focused on completing the task. Getting the job done. Finding the best solution available in the circumstances and the few moments in which the decision had to be made – and owning the results of that decision.
In those situations, you become very task and results driven. You also become authoritative – and sometimes authoritarian! There is a little time for discussion, but in the end you must make decisions on imperfect information and in a hurry. Nothing else matters but – again, for emphasis – getting the job done. You cannot put it down, let it wait a bit, put it off till tomorrow – in short, you cannot procrastinate.
You could say that you’re always on.
And then I retired, specifically so that I could publish Death in Focus and write more with the same characters. A series, I hope. We shall see.
It was a big change. But. But I’m still the same: target driven, authoritative (my child would say dictatorial, but she loves me anyway), decisive, do-it-now and do-it-better personality that I always was.
So what blockage is teaching me, is that sometimes it’s good to have to wait. Sometimes it’s good to stop, smell the flowers (or in my case weed the flowerbed so that next year there might be flowers), and simply be. It’s teaching me that you can’t always force things to happen on your own timetable.
Blockage is teaching me to relax. And for that reason alone, although I wish it would clear, it has value.
S.R. Garrae
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