by Dan Goodwin
Procrastination is responsible for more lost creative time than probably any other single issue.
Overcoming procrastination is a huge hurdle for many creative people, despite the great amount of time it would free up for us to create more.
More than just freeing up time, simply KNOWING you’re using your time more productively leads to other knock on benefits.
When you feel short of time, when you go to create knowing already before you’ve even begun that you’re under pressure to finish soon, obviously this adds extra anxiety.
You’re watching the clock, counting the minutes, and never truly letting yourself get lost in creating.
You’re never getting to the point of letting your creativity off the leash to play because you’re afraid it’ll run off to play in the woods, and you really haven’t got time to go chasing it and bring it back to heel again!
Also when you feel short of time, you never attempt any creative projects beyond very small and simple ones. Now these are great to do, and can bring a great amount of pleasure. In fact, always trying new “mini-projects” is an excellent habit to adopt for any creative artist.
But sometimes you want more.
You want to paint that 2m X 3m canvas, write that 50000 word novel, record that 12 track album. If you’re always losing time procrastinating, it’s going to be very difficult to make any significant progress with these larger projects you long to create.
So how DO you beat procrastination?
The first step is the most crucial. Ignore this and you’ll always be a slave to habits of procrastination.
Ready for the revelation of what this vital first step is?
Admit you procrastinate.
Yes, as simple as that. Yet for so many of us, however much we long to overcome procrastination, we don’t embrace this, and continue with heads in the sand wondering why we’re still not being more creative and making better progress.
If you don’t admit you procrastinate, you can’t move on to the next step, which is recognising how and when you procrastinate most. The aim of admitting you procrastinate is not to blame and shame yourself, not to cast judgment and criticise how much time you spend avoiding creating.
If you approach it in that frame of mind, it’s only going to lead to pain, guilt, and most likely MORE procrastination.
Approach this instead with intention of becoming more aware, of learning how you do stuff. If you have this as your guiding motivation – to find out and learn more so you’re in the best and most informed position to move on – you won’t experience those negative and judgmental feelings.
If a struggling business calls in a consultant to help them, they don’t greet them on the first day saying “No, we’re fine, there’s no problem here. What’s that? We’ve made a loss for 15 months running? It’s only money, I try not to worry about... Sorry? Our staff only stay an average of 5 weeks? Yeah we just haven’t found the right ones yet, it’s their loss. I’ll give you a call when we have real problems...” It’s the same with you and procrastination. If you don’t admit there’s an issue there – something you can chose today to take control of and reclaim your creativity – you’ll always procrastinate.
Isn’t it time you took the first step?
Procrastination is responsible for more lost creative time than probably any other single issue.
Overcoming procrastination is a huge hurdle for many creative people, despite the great amount of time it would free up for us to create more.
More than just freeing up time, simply KNOWING you’re using your time more productively leads to other knock on benefits.
When you feel short of time, when you go to create knowing already before you’ve even begun that you’re under pressure to finish soon, obviously this adds extra anxiety.
You’re watching the clock, counting the minutes, and never truly letting yourself get lost in creating.
You’re never getting to the point of letting your creativity off the leash to play because you’re afraid it’ll run off to play in the woods, and you really haven’t got time to go chasing it and bring it back to heel again!
Also when you feel short of time, you never attempt any creative projects beyond very small and simple ones. Now these are great to do, and can bring a great amount of pleasure. In fact, always trying new “mini-projects” is an excellent habit to adopt for any creative artist.
But sometimes you want more.
You want to paint that 2m X 3m canvas, write that 50000 word novel, record that 12 track album. If you’re always losing time procrastinating, it’s going to be very difficult to make any significant progress with these larger projects you long to create.
So how DO you beat procrastination?
The first step is the most crucial. Ignore this and you’ll always be a slave to habits of procrastination.
Ready for the revelation of what this vital first step is?
Admit you procrastinate.
Yes, as simple as that. Yet for so many of us, however much we long to overcome procrastination, we don’t embrace this, and continue with heads in the sand wondering why we’re still not being more creative and making better progress.
If you don’t admit you procrastinate, you can’t move on to the next step, which is recognising how and when you procrastinate most. The aim of admitting you procrastinate is not to blame and shame yourself, not to cast judgment and criticise how much time you spend avoiding creating.
If you approach it in that frame of mind, it’s only going to lead to pain, guilt, and most likely MORE procrastination.
Approach this instead with intention of becoming more aware, of learning how you do stuff. If you have this as your guiding motivation – to find out and learn more so you’re in the best and most informed position to move on – you won’t experience those negative and judgmental feelings.
If a struggling business calls in a consultant to help them, they don’t greet them on the first day saying “No, we’re fine, there’s no problem here. What’s that? We’ve made a loss for 15 months running? It’s only money, I try not to worry about... Sorry? Our staff only stay an average of 5 weeks? Yeah we just haven’t found the right ones yet, it’s their loss. I’ll give you a call when we have real problems...” It’s the same with you and procrastination. If you don’t admit there’s an issue there – something you can chose today to take control of and reclaim your creativity – you’ll always procrastinate.
Isn’t it time you took the first step?
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