The aim of the movie and the essay was to impress upon our young minds the need to do things in a timely fashion. For the most part, I agree. My favorite phrase is “eat the big frog first.” Do it, put it behind you, get it done. Whew – imagine me wiping my brow. Ah, no one warned me that eating the frog was another term for procrastination. When I’m faced with a task I enjoy, I fill the time eating that danged frog. Need to edit. No worries. One of my favorite parts of writing. I’ll get to it right after I check my email, comment on blogs, write my planner journal… Oh, dang. Look at the time. I don’t have the bandwidth to dig into edits now. Well, I’ll do it tomorrow. See what I mean?
At the end of the day, when I am at my desk, red pencil in hand, time flies. It’s so easy to keep the flow going. I cannot imagine why I delayed starting. I hate to think about stopping. Hands come to a screeching halt. Is that another form of procrastination? Not wanting to stop? I’ll think about that another time.
It took a lot of years and a quickie telephone conference with a friend who is also a practicing psychologist to figure it out. We discarded the first diagnosis—that I don’t feel worthy of the fun. Nope, we’d known each other too long for him to believe that of me. Instead, he pointed out that I behaved like many members of my generation, especially those who attended parochial school. I believe I must earn my fun. Hence, eating that frog. We have the quintessential no pain/no gain philosophy. Was he feeding me pop psych on a spoon to get me off the phone? Maybe. But the statement struck a chord. And it helped me move on.
These days I get to my desk and do the fun stuff first. It makes the rest of the day so much more…fun.
Readers and writers – do you feel you need to pay your dues first? Does it work for you?
I was taught "work before play." Whenever I play first, I feel guilty -- sometimes a little guilty, sometimes a lot guilty. You'd think that would have to do with the level of play or the import of the "delayed" work, but it's more complicated than that, showing despite decades of trying to ignore bad lessons, they can still occassionally reach past my armor of knowledge and grab me by the throat. My movies in 3rd grade were 16mm films.
ReplyDeleteAh, but what if the work is also fun!
DeleteI am a believer in work before play, but I find that I make my to-do lists and then cross off the piddly or fun things first - wondering why I don’t get serious about longer projects until late afternoon or evening. What I can produce between midnight and two far exceeds eight to ten am - so my procrastination is tied to body rhythms.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Debra!
DeleteHah! I do the same thing. Put the piddly things first and end up writing late in the afternoon.
DeleteBut look at your productivity! It works for you. :)
DeleteI promised myself that I would shovel out and clean the house and flex my muscles for the weeding season ahead when I finished the first draft of my WIP. But here I am, ignoring dog-dirty windows in favor of writing a short story.
ReplyDeleteSounds perfect! And the pups will only nose up those windows as soon as they're clean - at least if your pup is like mine!
DeleteHmm. There's a concept I should explore for myself. Tomorrow, maybe.
ReplyDeleteLOL - Indeed!
ReplyDeleteFor me, some of it comes down to what I do best at certain times. My creative brain wakes up before my analytical brain, I think. If I don't do my writing in the morning, I sometimes feel I've missed the window of opportunity!
ReplyDeleteExcellent. I keep wishing for more hours in the morning so I can write when I'm freshest. Trying to re-train myself. Old dog, new tricks...Houston, we may have a problem :)
ReplyDelete