The Writer's Indiscipline (the fight we face)

In the few years that I’ve worked as a writer’s encourager (as I like to call myself), there is one statement that keeps coming up.

When I ask this, “How is your writing? What’s the major problem you’re facing?”

Here’s the reply I always get, “I need to overcome my procrastination and lack of consistency. I like and enjoy doing this thing but it seems I’m overwhelmed and can’t seem to stop procrastinating.”

Funny enough, sometimes I see myself in these statements.?

Is this the writer’s indiscipline?

How many writers procrastinate and find it hard to show up? (oh, I just typed this question in Google and let me tell you what the front page says.)

Quora says professional writers procrastinate too.

Atlantic says writers are the worst procrastinators.

And the other people are offering tips on how to make you write as much as possible.?

What’s the psychology behind procrastination and why do so many writers do it?

For me

I feel reluctant.?

I just don’t feel it until the deadline comes knocking and then I get a superpower.?

The words come flowing. I look back at my screen once I’m done and I’m outstanded by my genius but…

Deep down… I know I could have done better if I did not procrastinate.

But I still got the job done, I chide myself.?

Anyways…

Here’s the psychology of it…

You love to write but:

1. You want it to be perfect and now you’ve wasted a lot of time.

2. You’re scared. Of course, you tried, You did try but after writing two paragraphs it did not make sense. Just as I was writing this blog, I had written a few lines for another topic but it didn’t make a bit of sense.?

And then it’s easy to believe you can’t do something tangible and then you decide to do it on a better day and now two weeks have passed you by.

3. You’re just lazy about it. And the best part is that this is normal. Normally, you don’t want to stand up and write.

Many times, we don’t feel like doing anything. You wake up every morning motivating yourself to keep pushing the dream and when you take a brief pause, you procrastinate.?

4. You’re anxious when you try to write.?

5. You avoid the most important task on your to-do list. You’re supposed to be writing but as soon as you open your laptop, you’ve moved through 20 tabs and done so many things while avoiding the main thing you wanted to do and now it’s 6 pm.

6. It’s a job. You used to enjoy writing until it became a job. Now you feel pressured because you have to write in niches you had never tried out before so you overthink it until the deadline approaches.

7. You love the deadline pressure: You can’t write if someone is not hounding you. Now that’s a major procrastination concern and you definitely can overcome it.?

The solution

If I were a doctor for writers (I could imbibe this name too), I would probably want to allude that there is no cure for procrastination.?

It’s like that addiction you keep falling into once your motivation wears off but yes people were able to complete their books and so can you. Some people magically show up every day and you can too.

How?

1. Take advantage of your motivation day.?

There’s this day for every writer. The day you have a kick to reduce your to-do list.?

On this day, make sure to stand up (that’s the first step).

Clear your work table or make your space appealing (this is to help clear your head).

Arrange your workspace well.

Now write but first, we’re writing your to-do list and make sure you have everything set and face it all that day.

Schedule as much as possible. This is because you might not find that motivation tomorrow but if you do then yes you can do it.

Have this day and see wonders.

Just like Tobi Oluwole said in one of his posts, he and his friends did a 10-hour marathon work day and they even hired a chef for that day.

There could be that day.

2. Know your WHY

This sounds vague but it is pretty straightforward. And this was suggested to me by Zainab Olanrewaju (The Stolutionist) , my genius writer.?

When you find out why you do it, then maybe you could find your motivation.

You can also consider the things that would happen if you didn’t.

For me, it’s my dream to see the world and be a TOP person. You can figure it out too.

3. Don’t take on too much at once.

You want to overcome procrastination and you are doing the one thing that is bringing out your worst fear. The fear that you can’t do it. And that is your to-do list. Cos why is a to-do list for one day 50 lines long?

Now the day’s ended and you only did one thing on it, you tried but what to do with the remaining 49? So you relapsed again.

No, come back up, dear.

Create doable to-do tasks for each day. If you finish them before the stipulated time then you can add one thing more.?

This means your goals for work should be picked in bite sizes. Stop doing too much at once.

4. We enjoy multitasking but focusing on one thing at a time helps.

Trust me, I do this. I’ve caught myself editing two scripts at the same time and surfing several pages while also designing.?

Oops! But one day I decided to reduce the 20 taps and focus on one tab at a time and it got the job done, fortunately.

5. It doesn’t have to be perfect (JUST WRITE)

When my cousin decided to pick up writing, he could not come up with his first article after many tries. Why? It had to be perfect. His debut into the writing world had to make crazy sense.

Probably you’re worried about how your friends would laugh when they read your lines, well, it doesn’t matter.

And like I have always told every single writer who has patronized me (JUST WRITE!)

WRITTTTTEEEE

Even if it’s a line.

WRITE!

6. Read and listen

You have writer's block. Nothing has dropped for the past 2 weeks and now you are lost on what to do. How about you read something related to your niche? Or listen to writers talk. I know this helped me a lot.?

7. Build an audience around yourself

Imagine that you have a very eager audience waiting every week for your newsletter of which you know potential collaborators might be in this audience then maybe, just maybe, you wouldn’t want to procrastinate.

8. Capture your achievements.

This can encourage you to do more. Imagine you always write down everything you have achieved over the past weeks or days and you always go back to read it or look through it. This can encourage you. You did those, you can do better.

Several apps can help you capture your achievements. Apps like Anutio can help me capture your achievement. You get your brag book.

We love writing and we can write more consistently.

Let me know what you think or anything you’d like to add.

PS: These are not surefire methods for getting yourself to stop procrastinating. The top solution is YOU. Only you can stop yourself from stalling and I hope you don’t procrastinate in applying these too.

Thanks for getting to this point. See you next week.