Best reason ever to stop procrastinating and knock out your to-do list? Because you get rid of that big dark cloud that keeps following you around. Or is it the heavy weight on your shoulders? A monkey on your back? A noose around your neck?
Whatever you call it—once it’s gone, Oh, What a Feeling! <insert song from Flashdance and you’ll be singing it all day long>
That mental list you’ve been keeping of all the things that you need to/want to/should do but haven’t gotten around to doing is using up subconscious energy and brain power that could be going to your WIP.
Sometimes my mind feels so cluttered I have a hard time focusing or being creative. How does a writer break through the burden and get to the dancing part?
Step 1. Write a to-do list. Everything that your mind is mulling over. Most likely these items won’t be writing-related, but they are taking up brain space. Get them out of your head and onto paper so your brain won’t have to work so hard to remember them.
Step 2. Pick three items and do them. Today. (I’d pick the ones that take the smallest amount of time….or maybe the one that has been on your mental list for the longest.) Time yourself. Did it take less time than you thought it would?
Irony: small chore-like tasks that we put off because we think they’ll take too much time, usually take less than 5 or 10 minutes to complete. I tell my kids they spend more time talking about a thing than doing the thing. But other activities, like getting published, take WAY more time than we think they will. Hmm.
Step 3. Relish in the victory. Shoulders feeling a little lighter? Glad you took the time to tackle your list?
Our Anti-Procrastination challenge this month has motivated me to take care of a lot of little things around the house that I’ve left undone. Today, I took my king-sized comforter to the cleaners. Been meaning to do that for awhile, now. Seemed too much of a hassle, but now that it’s done, I don’t have to keep thinking about it.
And for my writing? I’m up to Lecture #4 on Margie Lawson’s Deep EDITS lecture pack. Again and again she blows me away with her teaching. SO glad I set the time aside to work through the material.
What about you?
What are you glad you’ve done this month? Share with us so we can all dance together 
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6 users responded in this post
It’s funny you mention this today. I was just thinking I needed to wash my floor this weekend. I’ve put it off for too long now.
Normally, I try and get my chores done before I start writing. If I don’t, then I feel guilty writing and I don’t concentrate on it enough. And I want to get lost in my writing. That’s when the best stuff comes!
LOL, Stacy, get out the mop and clear your head! I agree, sometimes it’s hard to get lost in the story world when the real world won’t leave you alone.
You are so right, Shonna. Too often I put off things that would only take a few minutes. They hang over me, draining energy better spent elsewhere. Writing them down gives me a visual reminder and choosing to do 1-3 now, saving the rest for later, alleviates the I-should’s from my back-of-the-mind Jiminy Cricket. Such good advice. Thanks for the reminder. Now if only I would pay attention.
Shonna, you’re right about the Flashdance song – now it’s stuck in my head! LOL! But you’ve got me thinking about the 1-3 things I’ll do today to get them to stop bothering me. Later. I woke up at 5am thinking about my story, and I’ve been working on it ever since! I love days like this!!
haha I’m taking Margie’s class right now and I’m 8 million weeks behind. I finally bought binder dividers for the lectures so I can at least organize them.
52 Faces, nice use of the hyperbole rhetorical device. Margie would be proud.
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