It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog post. It’s been even longer since I’ve written a blog post on my personal website.
No, I don’t hate writing. I love it and have since I was a teenager.
No, I’m not so insanely busy that I can’t take 10-15 minutes to write a blog post. I’m busy, but I do have SOME free time.
And no, I’m definitely not creatively starved or out of ideas. I get ideas all the time for what to write about.
What I am is a procrastinator. Not just a run of the mill procrastinator, but a major league, MVP procrastinator. I’m confident that if there were a super bowl of procrastinating, I’d win it–or at least come close.
Back in college, I’d wait to write a 10-20 page term paper until the day before. I’d get an A for it because, oddly enough, having a hard deadline to meet actually makes me write better.
When I first started my freelance career and wrote articles for clients, I’d wait til the day before they were due to even start them. The finished product would be very well received, almost as if I had been working on it for days rather than mere hours.
Then I settled into my current career path as a Project Manager. It seemed like an odd choice as someone who procrastinates and never saw herself as a particularly strong leader, but it’s something I’ve done pretty well at. I’m able to take a project from a small idea to something greater. Sometimes I procrastinate and things take a little longer to get done, but for the most part, everyone is happy.
For the last couple months, though, I’ve been focusing on increasing efficiency. I’ve been thinking about how to make the project management process go smoother. I’ve even adapted this “more efficiency = better results” model to my own life beyond work.
What I’ve realized is that, for as good of a Project Manager as I am, I’m an even worse procrastinator. Being one who craves efficiency and results so much, it kills me that I waste so much time doing other things rather than doing important things.
Don’t get me wrong: sometimes you NEED to do those other things. Sometimes you need to kick back with a game of Halo. Sometimes you need to scan your Facebook, or watch a TV show. But when it gets in the way of more important things (such as work or family or cleaning or exercising), you’ve got a problem.
What I’ve found is combatting procrastination requires a few things.
The first is willingness to accept that you procrastinate. You must acknowledge it and when it is happening. When you sit down to watch the latest episode of Silicon Valley rather than getting an important SEO audit done, you’re procrastinating. Sure, you SHOULD take the time out to see how the guys at Pied Piper have messed up this week, but you shouldn’t do it until that audit is done.
The second is having an idea of what you need to get done on a given day. For this, task management is very important. I recently started using 2Do, a terrific task management program for Mac and iOS. I won’t say that I always get every single thing done on my 2Do list for a particular day, but I will say that since I started using 2Do, I get a lot more done. In my case, procrastination absolutely thrives on disorganization–getting rid of that mental clutter by recording exactly what you need to get done makes it that much harder to procrastinate.
Third, and probably most important, is having the willpower to stop yourself when you’re procrastinating. Like the title says, putting it off until tomorrow is a terrible idea unless you have a truly legitimate reason for delaying (such as an emergency, illness, a big family event etc.). This is where awareness of procrastination and awareness of what’s due is key. If I can look at my to-do list and see that I need to get X, Y, Z done, you best believe I need to get those done before I’m permitted to relax. Willpower is a constant push to get those tasks done because their completion is more important to your life than any video game, Facebook status, or TV show.
Having said all this, I still need to follow my advice. Here’s to more blogging and less procrastination as the days, weeks, and months go by.
