I’ve been meaning to write this for ages. It’s been on my list of possible posts for over a year, but I kept putting it off in favour of other stuff. Then around came the new year and it gave me the perfect excuse to stop making excuses and get it done. Everybody procrastinates some of the time, but writers are particularly prone. There may be many reasons for this – writer’s block, for example – but we might just be at the mercy of our brains. If you keep putting stuff off, it can look like pure laziness and a way to avoid work, but procrastination isn’t really about poor time management either.
Jam Today
The truth is, most people procrastinate in order to make
themselves feel better in the short-term. You’ll tend to put off doing
something either because it’s boring or because it’s too hard and it makes you
uncomfortable. This is because there’s a fight going on between two parts of
your brain: the prefrontal cortex, which deals with planning and problem
solving, and the limbic system, which wants immediate gratification of every
passing whim. And this is where we come unstuck.
Procrastination seems to be about the relationship between
impulsivity and motivation, and whether you’ll be rewarded for the work. The
more motivated you are, the less likely you are to procrastinate. But the more
impulsive you are, the more you’ll procrastinate. Generally speaking, we’re not
good at delaying gratification. We tend to want our rewards now, not at some
future date.
This is bad news for writers.
When you sit down to write a book, you have no idea whether
you’ll be able to even finish it, never mind whether it’ll be published. So
you’re expecting yourself to feel motivated to do something that’s incredibly
hard work with absolutely no guarantee it’ll be rewarded. This isn’t a problem
if you’re enjoying the process of writing. But what happens when things go
pear-shaped? Here’s a quote from an old post on Free Your Pen about my struggle with procrastination:
“Here’s the problem: I’m deep into writing my first novel (very bad and doomed to be ignored by everyone), but I haven’t done any actual writing on it for a couple of weeks. I’ve looked at it. Frowned a bit. Made some half-arsed notes about what I think might work. Indulged in a guilt-trip, mentally beaten myself up, and then turned my back and whistled.”
Sounds more like writer’s block. In that post I mused about
whether I was procrastinating or percolating. Perhaps the book needed time to
stew and I just had to wait. In that case, I wasn’t procrastinating at all.
(You can read the whole of that post here: What is Procrastination?)
The real problem here is meaning. If doing a particular task
is meaningful to you, then you’ll have no difficulty motivating yourself to get
on with it, regardless of whether you’ll be rewarded now or later. If the task
is boring or perceived as meaningless (and a lot of the work done in offices
around the country every day is both), then you’re going to find it hard to
resist the many distractions our culture provides.
The Eight Styles of Procrastination
So what kind of procrastinator are you? Here’s a basic list
of the eight main types (some people list 3 or 4 types, while others list 12).
There’s probably some overlap between them and your style of procrastination
may vary with the task and the reason you’re procrastinating.
Thrill Seeker –
you get a kick out of doing everything at the last minute. You may be
over-confident of your abilities and think you can wing it. Tend to get bored
easily and create crises to spice things up.
Rebel – you hate
imposed deadlines and want to be in control of what you do and when. Some tasks
seem like a waste of your precious time and you want to retain your sense of
individuality. Tend to be impulsive and defiant.
Perfectionist –
you want to do it perfectly or not at all. You’re organised and meticulous in
your plans but may never get down to work. Tend to make lists and put too much
pressure on yourself to get it right. You might also find it hard to finish a
task once started because of the need for perfection.
Daydreamer – you
would rather think about what you need to do than do it. You may prefer
abstract ideas and potentials to messy reality, and find it hard to plan in
detail and follow through on your ideas.
Distracter – you
get distracted a lot and get bored easily. You may get sidetracked onto
multiple projects and tend not to finish what you start. You want immediate
gratification and find it hard to concentrate or stay focused on one thing at
once.
Worrier – you fear
the outcome so avoid starting. You may suffer from excess self-doubt so tend to
avoid risk by staying in your comfort zone. Change is seen as something to fear
and avoid.
Over-doer –
you’re very busy and tend to take on too much. You may find it hard to
prioritise your tasks and end up disorganised and overwhelmed. You put off one
task so you can do another.
Apathetic – you
lack motivation for doing almost anything and everything. You may find it hard
to start any task. There could be many reasons, but it’s most likely an
emotional blockage of some sort.
Next time we’ll have a look at some of the ways we can deal
with procrastination and get stuff done. In the meantime, here’s a cool video
you can watch so you don’t have to get back to work:
Image: To Do
