“Procrastinate now, don't put it off”

Isn’t it strange how something we very much want to do often becomes something we keep putting off, something added to a to do list, that quickly becomes a chore or a ‘should’?

Even as someone who is creative every day in some way, I can procrastinate with the best of them, and sometimes even when I want to do a certain creative or artistic project, every time I think of it I decide it’s not the ‘right moment’, or ‘I must just do x,y and z first’.

Apparently, the word entered the language in the 16th century (people probably thought about using it in the 15th century, but figured, hey, we can do it later). It comes from the Latin – procrastinationem, which means “a putting off.” This derives from procrastinare, “to put off till tomorrow,” from pro-“forward” and crastinus, “belonging to tomorrow.” Wow, I should have procrastinated about looking that up!

Of course, procrastination isn’t such a big problem when you simply put something off until tomorrow. It’s when you put it off day after day, for weeks, months and years, that it becomes an issue.

There are all sorts of reasons why this happens, and mostly they’re about fear, in my experience. And actually I don’t think it’s always necessary or helpful to start delving around in the ‘why’. That can just be another way to procrastinate.

“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.”

― Denis Waitley

When it comes down to it, it’s actually pretty simple. If you want to do something, you’re going to make it a priority, and you’re going to do it.

And of course if it was as EASY as it is simple, no one would ever procrastinate!

The list is not exhaustive; it is simply some of the best and most effective ways to remove the ‘not right now’ hurdle.

Start a daily project

This is an excellent way - What worked for me was committing to the project but not to how long I’d be doing it for. To date I’ve been doing it for 36 days and am inspired to continue until I’ve finished what I am writing.

Some days I don’t feel like it, but five minutes or less doing some blurting out not only doesn’t kill me, it almost always turns out to be fun, and even generates new ideas and inspiration.

And because of the fact that I’ve made it ‘public’ by sharing it on LinkedIn and Facebook, and hearing that people look forward to seeing them or feel inspired by them, it adds another layer to the desire to continue.

Knowing I can stop at any time is ironically what’s helping me to keep going. (The inner rebel in me just loves to be contrary, so why not use that to my advantage!)

Find an accountability buddy

Online, offline, in a group, just one friend, set up play dates where you have fun doing what you ought to do, join a course or group online that perhaps has weekly challenges or regular sharing sessions.

The point is, when we take it outside of just ourselves, it becomes instantly easier to DO something rather than just talk about doing it.

Someone who is not you can be a cheerleader, a support, an encourager, a catalyst or 3 in our case, a brainstormer, a partner in creative crime, and someone to share your wins with, however tiny!

The accountability and structure of daily lessons and a place to share with others doing the same thing is an excellent catalyst and sustainer :)

Always have some materials on hand

My friend and fellow colleague gave a brilliant example of this with his Goalchy community. A Vision Board right in front of your eyes the moment you get up!!

Ready for when you need to start and get things done. These can be small works in themselves, or warm up/reminder stickers to add up later.

You could also keep a small book and pen in your bag, or in your desk at work for lunch breaks or moments when you are sparked by inspiration or in need of some quick decompression.

Play it down

From my observations, part of the problem is thinking there’s a problem! It can help me a lot to really play down the importance factor. Now obviously you will never hear me say creativity is not important as a part of life! But I will say that -

If talking it up as a big deal in your mind is stopping you taking action, then start practicing talking it down and see what happens.

When it’s nearing the end of the day and I haven’t done my daily tasks and I am not in any kind of mood to do it, I switch gears and think about how small and quick and ultimately unimportant it is really. I tell myself, ‘just run up to the laptop and take ten minutes to doodle,’ or something along those lines.

See? No biggie.

If you can talk yourself out of something you can certainly talk yourself into it!

(This also applies to the whole project like making a Course, writing a book, etc.)

Be kind!

This leads on from my previous point.

If you’re verbally beating yourself about the head because you’re not putting paint to paper, that is unlikely to cause you to actually do it. Self kindness is one of those things we’re all learning, and there’s plenty out there to help us do that these days.

As with anything, it begins in our own minds.

Don’t say ‘god, I haven’t written anything for ages, I’m so crap and clearly not an influencer, there’s no point even starting, oh and I just remembered I have to do the washing up or I’ll have nothing to eat for dinner’.

Say ‘wow, I haven’t written anything for quite long and I know I really want to. I’m going to stick the timer on for five minutes and move this pencil around the page.’

Don’t bother yourself with outcomes or meaning, or whether you actually make the full five minutes, just gently sidle up to your supplies and start. Often that five minutes will become ten or much more.

Work with what you know about yourself!

If you’re like me and don’t want to get up once you’ve finally sat down, have these things already in place!

Make it bitesize

They say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and this is excellent advice for creativity. You don’t have to be creating a masterpiece every time. Small is your friend here.

Think small posts, insights, stories, questions..

Keep it small and simple and reduce the pressure of it needing to be a grand adventure each time you want to make art.

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”

― Pablo Picasso

The most obvious reason for procrastination is that we really don’t want to do what it is we’re putting off. One doesn’t often hear the term procrastination applied to sex or eating. So perhaps when you find yourself procrastinating, it’s time to sit down – now! – and look at what’s really important to you. 

Ultimately it’s down to a personalized combination of self discipline, making it easier on yourself and a little bit of self trickery. So I suggest taking one idea here and implementing it, right now!

As Amelia Earhart said, “The most effective way to do it is to do it.”