I have mentioned this before, but on my list of necessary evils, housework falls somewhere between doing my tax returns and getting a tetanus shot. There is only one time that changes. If I am up against a writing deadline, or need to study for a test of some kind, or prepare for a hearing, housework shoots right up to the top of my list of priorities. Housecleaning is the perfect procrastination tool. Physical work, little thought, and the righteous satisfaction of seeing the dust and grime yield before me will squash any lingering concerns about the looming deadline. Until I stop cleaning house and the worry floods right back into me. The only drawback to housekeeping-as-procrastination is that no matter how hard I clean, the deadline remains, looming closer.
Are there good ways to deal with procrastination? I haven’t found many that work for me beyond the drop-dead deadline. (Not the fake deadline you set up to try to get something done early, but the drop-dead/your-case-will-be-thrown-out-of-court deadline.) The best thing about a deadline is that you reach a point, whether you want to be there or not, where you just have to start writing or working on whatever it is you have been avoiding. When the deadline involves a writing project, I may be thinking the entire time, “This is the worst paragraph/story/essay/brief/scene I’ve ever written,” but at least I am putting words on paper. (I am, of course, speaking metaphorically since most of my writing now is done on a laptop or desktop computer with a keyboard, but the principle is the same.)
I have been to a couple of seminars on the issue, and they have dangled the tantalizing possibility that procrastination has psychological roots. That has two advantages. First, if it is a psychological problem, then I can believe that it’s not really my fault that I like to procrastinate. Second, it gives me even more rabbit holes to go down while I’m trying to procrastinate by looking up stuff on the internet. (Once, during an extended three-week writer’s block session, I googled such interesting topics as who was Elizabeth II of England’s sister’s husband, whether “redeemability” is a word and if so, the definition thereof, the list of daily specials at the local cafe, and the cost of the law office for sale one block from my house. I also confirmed that neither I nor my husband had uveal melanoma, congenital heart disease, eosinophilic asthma, defective automatic levelers in our camper, or unexplained hair loss.)
I do find that procrastination can be based in part on fear—fear that my work won’t be any good, fear that I am not capable of doing the task I have been set, and the fear of failing are just a few I can come up with. In my life, I have discovered only two ways to deal with fear. The first is to go through it. I could look it squarely in the face, take a deep breath, and walk through it with my head held high. That sounds quite noble, doesn’t it? I’d be impressed with myself if I had ever managed to do that more than a smattering of times when it really mattered. Most of the time, if I am in the “go through it to the other side” mode, I do it with my eyes closed, shuffling my feet slowly forward inch by inch, grabbing every handhold I can find. It’s not nearly as noble, but it still gets me where I need to go.
The other technique is to avoid the thing that causes the fear. Avoidance works really well with things like spiders and cockroaches. I was 40 before I ever killed a spider, and that was only because Mark was at work, it was just me and a five-year-old Kayla in the house, and she was more terrified than I was. And before you laugh and try to point out to me that said insects are much smaller than me, so it shouldn’t be a problem, you obviously don’t know your natural history very well. It is a proven fact that any insect you try to kill has the ability, should it wish, to morph into a creature six feet tall with slathering fangs and the ability to smash you into smithereens and then boil you for lunch. Avoidance doesn’t work nearly as well when the thing that causes fear is a task that has to be accomplished, like doing your taxes. Trust me, the IRS doesn’t care how scared you are; it wants your return filed correctly and by the appointed date and time.
So I’m curious, fellow writers and gentle readers, what techniques have you found to help you deal with procrastination, especially the fear-based variety? Does procrastination or fear affect your writing? Any advice would be welcome.
