A case study based on the exercise in Procrastination: How to stay on the sofa as long as you like
We’re all drawn to different professions according to our natures, and with those natures seem to go particular fears. Writers are a case in point: they tend to be introverted (as in inner-world, not shyness), with a desire to express themselves and a love for quality and craftmanship. Can you guess what makes them procrastinate…?
Coach = Me
Client = Me (and every other writer I know)
Coach: What is the task, and what objective is this task supporting?
Me: Writing an article on “Your product – It’s All About The People”, or something like. The immediate objective is to be able to add it to my blog so that people can benefit from it. The ultimate objective is to make my knowledge and creative skill obvious to potential clients, plus to clarify what I know/think in my own head so that I can exploit it better generally. Okay, so I’m seeing a rather pleasing article with positive comments added by readers, and a sense of clarity in my head about the topic.
Coach: What does not writing the article protect you from?
Me: [Looking at the A Few Dozen Reasons to Procrastinate list]
Mm, “The results may be mediocre” – oh, god yes. If the results aren’t good, then I’m mediocre too. Way to generalise…
“There are more important things to do” – yes, like paperwork before the taxman throws me in jail.
“I may get no reaction at all from the results” – yep, ties into the mediocre thing, plus some vague things about popularity and influence. Invisibility is guaranteed to raise my blood-pressure.
“Giving enemies more things to bash me with” – yes, those invasive pedants are hard work when they start banging on about some peripheral element of my articles. Draining! Demotivating.
I might discover, too, that I have nothing worth saying. That’s sort of there, even though I know it could never be true!
Coach: What would make it safe to write the article, even though it may be mediocre?
Me: Would it be mediocre? Probably not – the early ones were, but I’ve improved hugely, which proves that one has to practise. I’m learning all the time. I’ll just do a random brain dump into a doc, see what shape starts to emerge. I’m a word sculptor, lol!
Coach: What would make it safe to write the article, even though there are more important things to do?
Me: Oh, god, a whole zone of ‘am I writing in order to avoid the paperwork?’ I think the key has to be to allocate time effectively. God knows I know how to do that – if I’m not in avoidance mode. If I allocate time to things properly, I can relax into the ‘Writing the Article’ timeshare without guilting myself.
Coach: What would make it safe to write the article, even though you may get no reaction from the results?
Me: Ugh, ugh and ugh. Okay, breathe. Well, at the very least I’ll have had some writing practice, trying out new styles; plus I’ll have some clarity in my own head. If I get no reaction…then I’ll have to add some things to my task list: self promotion (yuk, a whole new procrastination exercise there) and ‘analysis of how my style compares with those which do get reaction.’
Coach: What would make it safe to write the article, even though it may give enemies something to bash you over the head with?
Me: Eh, the pedants and neg-heads are always out there, looking for a spiritual home. I’m not expecting actual stalkers. I need only to extract from it anything that gives me useful hints on how to improve. Free training!
Coach: What would make it safe to write the article, even though you discover you have nothing to say?
Me: Well, if it’s something I think I should be writing about and I don’t have something to say, that rather suggests some research is in order! That’s okay, no problem there.
Coach: What would make it fantastic to be writing the article?
Me: Having the opportunity to get all the bits and pieces out of my head and onto paper so that I can organise them and know what I think. Reaching the end of it and seeing that it says exactly what I meant it to say, that it’s a work of art, that it’s an effortless read. Being contacted by someone who says ‘We can see you think the way we need someone to think, please do this piece of extraordinarily stimulating work for us’. The feelings? Pleasure at having crafted something of value to me. Additional pleasure that someone else values it too.
Okay, better get brain-dumping! 1 hour for that, 1 hour for paperwork…
Penelope Else
Related posts:
A few dozen reasons to procrastinate
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