It’s Time to Stop the Procrastination

I’m a week overdue for this blog post because procrastination got the best of me. Procrastinating always sneaks up on you. It starts with one small excuse to not stick to your game plan, which turns into another, and another, until the snowball effect has you miles away from what you intended to be doing.

I got stuck. Instead of just getting to work, I told myself I needed to research more on the topic I wanted to write about before settling in. Then, I made a quick, sloppy, bullet-point list of what I thought I might want to write about, and then left it to rot as the procrastination set in. That list sat there for days – I would look at it, grimace, and walk away, thinking of all the laundry-dusting-shopping that I needed to get done instead.

Then, as I was binge-watching Netflix, as you do when you are officially three days into the newfound freedom of not having a job, I realized I couldn’t just sit around and let the day waste away any longer.

I was watching Girl Boss, which is about this millennial woman who at first doesn’t know what her dreams are and is floating through life wishing it was somehow better and more “figured out”. I got to an episode where it took a medical crisis for her to realize that she needed to quit her job and just go after her dream, which luckily by this point she realized was selling vintage clothing on eBay.

I’m not sure what happens next on the show, because I stopped watching, took a shower, rolled up my non-existent sleeves, and got to work here. What’s the point in watching a fictional character try to figure her life out when you’ve got a perfectly good one of your own that’s worth figuring out??

Just start already!

Sometimes, that one thing that is preventing you from just starting to work on your goals is your biggest nemesis. That mental block, that fear, that sense of mediocrity, is what plants the seed for what we call procrastination. The best way to get over it in cases like these it to just put pen (or paintbrush, or whatever else you are using) to paper (or canvas, or cloth, you get my drift).

If you think your last work or works were great and you don’t think you can pull off another piece that good, what’s the worst that could happen? Bang another piece out, and if it’s terrible, great! You got the bad one out of your system and can continue with your usual level of craftiness now. If it’s good, even better! You just proved to yourself that getting in your own head is a waste of time.

So here I am – consider this my “banging one out” post to get myself back on track. Is it my best piece of work? Definitely not! But does it matter? Not really. I am hopeful that these words inspire at least one reader away from procrastination and towards action, but even if it doesn’t, it did the job of getting my own juices flowing again!

If you’d like to learn more about why it’s important to avoid procrastination in the first place and get to work on your goals in a more strategic manner, check out my post on how planning can help declutter your life here.

Do you have ways of getting through your procrastination? I’d love to hear about them!