Do you hit the snooze button every morning, procrastinating the beautiful moment of waking up and starting your day? Do you delay tasks? Do you move items from your today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s, next week’s, never to be completed? Do you procrastinate your writing projects, and eliminate the possibility of entering flow state?
I’m not a perfectionist, but I have perfected procrastination. I gave myself the excuse that by delaying projects, I was leaning into my style of working well under pressure and within tight deadlines. But a life built on a series of last-minutes is one of lingering stress.
As I am seeking to access flow on demand, I’m choosing a different path now, and am examining my tendency to put things off. First, I’m considering what I’m procrastinating. Chores. Taxes. Paying bills. Those are things I don’t enjoy. I can always deal with those later, out of necessity, not love. But why would I ever procrastinate my writing when it brings profound joy and meaning to my life?
After much self-reflection, I’ve realized that I’m deeply hesitant to write if there is even a chance of interruption. I want to protect my flow zone so much that I don’t even let it begin. One scheduling strategy has proven highly successful for me. I now bundle my appointments and meetings on one or two days a week, leaving the other days free and clear for writing projects.
Heidi Weber, of https://theliterarysalon.com/blog and our coach for Flow for Writers (Steven Kotler’s group) offered one of her procrastination solutions in a session. She creates a list of small writing tasks, which she calls her Short Bits To Do List, that can be tucked into the tiny pockets of time between other scheduled activities. It’s informal, scribbled on a piece of paper, to be replaced regularly by a new list. This works for a few reasons. By giving ourselves a time container, such as ten minutes, we are able to psychologically commit to the mini writing assignments we’ve given ourselves. It also provides us with a clear, achievable goal for that window of time, which is a key flow trigger. I’ve made my own list and have found that my excuses for not writing have evaporated with the application of this tool. Thank you, Heidi!
I recently purchased a couple of hourglass timers. My intention is to commit to short writing sessions (and not scare the fuck out of myself when my phone timer goes off - which will happen every time I’m deep in flow). One is five minutes, the other twenty-five. I will commit to one of the timers every weekday. I’ll adopt Heidi’s tip by having a list of short writing tasks ready to go. I’ll also utilize writing prompts for days when my own creative juices are desiccated and dusty. The struggle phase of flow is real and unavoidable. However, I know from past experience that once I begin writing, something takes over and a compulsion to continue emerges. Starting is the hardest part. My best advice–start by starting.
Writing procrastination can also emerge from an imbalance of the Skills/Challenge ratio. Consider if your writing task bores you, if the subject or the characters are not compelling enough to drive you to the page. If so, create an added complexity to your writing goal: adopt the style of a favourite author, use a different tense, or perhaps explore an alternative POV. Or if the task is too overwhelming - break it down into manageable chunks, that you can check of for mini dopamine hits. Either way, the goal is to nudge the work into that challenge-skills sweet spot for flow.
What if procrastination is a sign that the activity doesn’t align with your values? Close your eyes and ponder the work that you are avoiding. How does it make you feel? Is your gut instinct whispering the reasons that this task does not align well with who you are? Is the work something you will be proud to share once it’s complete? We often judge ourselves for our procrastinatory ways, when they could be pointing us to our moral compass. For me, I found out where my AI comfort zone is by analyzing a week’s worth of procrastination on a homework assignment for Flow for Writers. We were challenged to use AI to analyse a piece of our writing and then have it provide feedback for future revisions. I completed the task, eventually, at the very last minute, but I felt unease about it. As I reflected, I had gratitude for the procrastination. It was communicating that I had crossed one of my moral lines.
I can’t say that I’ve experienced the same emotional mismatch when I procrastinated doing the dishes; that’s a different issue. Sometimes you just have to do the shit you don’t want to do.
What do you procrastinate and is there any meaning to be found in your procrastination habits?
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