Procrastination. What a beautiful word. Go and wash your dishes. Sit and watch some TV series. Learn some recipes. Watch your photos for the second time today. Go and google. Procrastinate. Do not think about problems. You will find the solution somehow. And if you don’t… You can always procrastinate a little bit more. Stop. What is that? What are we talking about? Huh, another form of procrastination, isn’t it?
There were times when procrastination had a different name. Laziness. And those times were perfect. No one wanted to be lazy. But today everyone wants to be a little bit of philosopher with those procrastination things explaining why their job is still not done.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination is a disease of all creative people. When you create something, you make your brain to work. It starts generating ideas, and it just can’t stop. Procrastination is another thing. It makes your brain calm down and start some routine work. Everything that you do with your hands, all automatic movements is a form of procrastination. Your brain is just sleeping. And it won’t wake up until you make some efforts. Of course, sometimes you need time to have a rest and reboot your brains. In this situation, procrastination works perfectly. Moreover, it can even help you generate more ideas. It works in the following way: you stop to strain your brain trying to find a solution on a surface. And it brings you the solution to a problem from your subconsciousness.
How to stop procrastinate?
Still, in most cases, we procrastinate just because we do not want to work. Or we think that we do not want to work. Or we just cannot confess ourselves that browsing Facebook is not a research, but another way to… You know. So here are some tips how to stop procrastinate and start to work.
- Create a schedule.
Writing is a creative process. Are you sure? Studies have shown that writing is not as creative as we always thought. Moreover, it requires analytical skills to write. Copywriters will tell you that their creativity is useless without their observational skill. Of course, creativity is important in writing. But sometimes you can write even without an inspiration. Create a schedule for mastering your wiring abilities. And when a time to write comes, just sit and write. A good exercise for everyone who wants to be always free with their words is morning pages. Each morning you need to write at least 5 pages. Write your dreams, or plans, or why you hate those morning pages, but write.
- What inspires you?
Inspiration is a good thing if you know how to manage it. When it just comes and goes like the wind, it is not useful at all. But when you understand how to turn it on, it becomes a weapon. A good thing is to choose a habit for an inspiration. Why habit? Let us say, the rain inspires you to write more. But how you can turn on the rain? Here are inspiration ideas, which you can turn into your habit or a way of behavior. Try some of them or find your own, and you will control your inspiration.
- Write when you feel a desire.
Sometimes, the desire to write comes from nowhere. If it happens to you, do not fight with it. Write down any thought, any idea, any strong sentence. You can also have a special notebook or app for such notes. When you have no idea what to write, you can always come back to these notes, look them through and find something that will awake your brain and make it work again.
- Create mindmaps.
If procrastination is a real problem for you, and none of the ways how to avoid it helps, use mindmaps to activate your brain activity. If you have no thoughts at all, you can always start with a minimal effort. Take one word and start to write associations. Then add associations to associations. Work through it. Eventually, you will notice that your brain is already active and you can use it for writing.
- Motivation.
Motivation can be the strongest tool not to procrastinate. Define, what motivates you personally. Perhaps, a reward is a key to work hard. Or your main motivation is a fear to lose your clients if you write for money. Maybe, you are motivated with the feedback you receive from your writes. Find a proper motivation for you and follow it.
BIO: Sophia Clark is a creative writer from New York who loves to share her thoughts with readers. In my free time she enjoys writing fiction as well as reading it. Her big dream is to publish a novel one day. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.
