Procrastination

This post was supposed to be about perseverance, sticking with things until they get done.  But then a funny thing happened ... I checked my email.  And then I checked out some news stories.  Checked email again.  Had dinner.  Did some laundry.  Checked email again (no, there weren't any new messages any time I checked, but I wouldn't have known that if I didn't check, now would I?).

And now, between the preceding paragraph and this one, I've watched the better part of an episode of Glee.  (Yeah, I know -- it's on loan from one of my wife's choir students.)  And looked up some of the song lyrics they were singing.  And got a brownie.  And a glass of milk.

And somewhere along the line I realized it was time to address that bane of the creative's existence: procrastination.  The funny thing is, I was going to put this subject off till a later date and deal with it then, but it's obvious to me I need to talk about it now.

Why do we procrastinate doing things we know we ought to do?  An even better question is: why do we procrastinate doing things we know are good for us, our lives, our careers, our creative endeavors?  If it's something we know is good -- good for us, good for others, good for the world and our lives -- why would we ever hesitate doing it as soon and fully as possible?

There are several good answers, and they all boil down to the same thing: inertia.  Some people will call it laziness, sloth, or a handful of other descriptors, but being a science geek at heart, I'll call it by its scientific name.  Inertia is nothing more than the tendency of a body at rest to stay at rest, or of a creative watching an episode of Glee to sit through a second episode of Glee, and then a third.

Don't even get me started on how inertia relates to brownie-eating.

To overcome that inertia and actually start doing something takes another scientific principle -- energy.  Now, if you paid attention in 7th grade science, you know there are two types of energy: potential and kinetic.  Potential energy is what you all have right now as you read this -- you have the ability to create something new, change the world, change your life ... but you're not actually doing anything about it.  What you need is an impulse: something that kicks you in the rear end (usually figuratively, but sometimes it takes a literal swift kick to the rear) and gets you moving.  At that point, your potential energy becomes kinetic energy, the energy of motion, of forward progress, of creation.

Procrastination is our disinclination to turn our potential energy into kinetic energy.  It's far easier to sit and think about all we want to do than it is to actually accomplish it.  That energy change, that impulse, is what we call work.  To overcome procrastination and get our energy moving, we have to work, and this is something that human beings as a whole tend to shy away from.  We want to have a better life, or more creative output, but we don't want to have to work to make the better life or the output -- we just want it to happen, like magic from the genie's fingers.  'Tis far easier to dream of something than to do it.

So, how do we overcome procrastination?  Here are some suggestions:

• Deadlines -- Deadlines are great things for overcoming procrastination.  If you know you have to have something accomplished by a certain day or time, the fear of not succeeding can often kick you into action when nothing else can.  Deadlines can be things imposed by others (like when the boss tells you to have the report to him by 5:00pm), things we impose on ourselves (like when we undertake the 50,000-word, 30-day challenge of NaNoWriMo), or things we have promised to others (like when I vow to put out a new blog post every Wednesday and Sunday).  No matter what sort of deadline you have, just having one can help get the job done.
• Schedule time for the task -- Scheduling a time to work on the task takes almost no effort, and so is something even our procrastination-addled brains can handle.  When the scheduled time comes, sit down and work on nothing except what you set the time aside for -- no checking email, doing housework, or playing with the dog.  You work on your scheduled task at its scheduled time, no matter what.
• Small steps -- Break your large task down into manageable bite-sized chunks and do just one of them.  Might take you all of two or three minutes, and you've at least progressed along your way, and that little bit of success may persuade you to do another small step.
• Just start -- This one is really a small step, but it's such an important tactic that I'm separating it.  Whatever your task is, just sit down and start it.  Don't worry about the final outcome or the next bit of the process; just start working on it.  So often procrastination is a symptom of being overwhelmed by the big picture, by the enormity of what we want to accomplish, that we shut down before we even start.  Often times if we just start working on the project, we'll find we progress faster than we thought, and the insurmountable final destination will prove to be surmountable after all.

The big thing to realize about procrastination is that it's going to affect all of us at one time or another.  I don't know of anyone who is totally immune to it, and those that claim they are are either lying, or else so good at overcoming it they don't feel its effects long enough to take notice.

You can ward it off, however, by using one final physical property -- momentum.  Momentum is a great thing.  You start an object moving, and it will want to stay moving.  Think of it as anti-inertia.  If you can start working on a project, and keep working on it, and when it's done switch to another project and work on it, then before long, you'll discover that it's been days or weeks, months even, since you felt the sting of procrastination.  Momentum is not a cure-all, for everything on Earth that moves eventually grinds itself to a halt, but it does make procrastination a far less frequent event in your life.

If you're under the burden of procrastination, then I challenge you right now to shut your web browser (after being sure to subscribe to The Creative or sign up to have it delivered to your inbox), and use one of the above tactics to get out from under its weight.  Free yourself from procrastination, and you can go make something of your life.