Subduing the Procrastination Demons

Arriba! Arriba! Epa! Let's get started!

After falling off the horse for a few weeks, I have started writing again. Temporary distraction in the form of frustration at work left me edgy and paralyzed by writer's block for pretty much the whole month of March. As it turns out, the happy result of the turmoil is that I am now free and open to focus on the writing.

Soooo now I need to stop getting in my own way by filling up my time with clutter projects. You know the ones I'm referring to; the activities we make up for ourselves that cause us less stress than doing what truly needs to be done. My favorite example: scrubbing the shower tiles instead of studying. I admit it, I deeply dislike cleaning. But damn, did my apartment sparkle during finals! We all play these mind games with ourselves. Some of us more than others. Ahem.

I am reading a little supplement magazine to the February edition of The Writer called Get Organized, Get Writing. It has several very helpful articles about getting yourself organized to better fight the demons that sabotage self-discipline. The little tips and tricks the authors encourage are great for motivating yourself. However, I've noticed that time management always comes down to a few steps:

• Realize you do have time. Think of how many hours you actually spend on time fillers like TV, Facebook, grooming the dogs, staring into space dreaming up what you would do if you won the Megamillions... All things that should not come between you and your goals.
• Set small blocks of time to write, only write, do nothing but write.
• Make these blocks of time during your peak energy hours and/or at points in the day when you are less likely to be interrupted. Feed and burp your family members and walk the dogs before you start.
• Commit yourself. Do it 5-7 days a week and make it part of your routine.

Another tip that stood out in this leaflet is to keep a log of your work. Author Gregory Martin swears by this tactic. In "A Way to Hold Off Your Evasion Strategies," he breaks the process down into small, but significant elements: every time you write, track the date and time, how long you will work and what you plan to work on, followed by an honest assessment of how it went and a plan for the next day. Personally, I tend to have great intentions with these logs, but never seem to follow up (like when I briefly tried a calorie-tracker food diary - ugh, boring!). But if you stick with it, I'm sure it's a great tool to keep yourself accountable.

Finally, I leave you with a quote @advicetowriters tweeted last week that sums up the rest of my problems:

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet. - ZADIE SMITH

You Are Your Own Sensei

Need help figuring out what to do with the rest of your life? Looking for someone to enlighten you?

You can go to your family. After all, they want what's best for you, right? Well, they want what they perceive as being best for you, which may not be good for you at all. (I'm pretty sure I would have hated being a dermatologist.)

You can ask your friends. But really, do they know any more about life than you do?

You can even pay for advice. But if you had a pot o' gold sitting around, I bet you wouldn't need a career counselor.

Inevitably, your search will come back to you.



Only you can choose your path, grasshopper.

A couple of years ago I decided I needed professional career help. I scoured a list of local psychologists and counselors who might suit my needs (and slim budget). When I finally decided on one, a middle-aged counselor with "career counseling" on her list of "specializations," I took a deep breath and gave her a call.

"Hi there, I'm interested in career counseling and found your name in a local database - "

"That's great. I can do that. What is your Myers Briggs personality type?" Whoa, dude, slow your roll. This woman didn't even know my name, and she was already trying to squeeze me into a box?

"INFP," I replied. "I mean, that's what the results of that test were, but - "

"Hmm, as an INFP, your profile is yadda yadda recitingtextbookjargon blah blah. Sure, I think I can help you."

"I don't think this is for me," I said, and bid her adieu.

That conversation taught me something crucial. I realized that what I had been yearning for was a wise man, a cunning sensei to guide me on the path to glory. A quick and easy answer to all my problems.

That day, I discovered that no one can tell me who I am.

No one can give me the advice I want to hear. Not Myers or Briggs. Not my mother, not my friends, not my cousin's-uncle's-girlfriend's-roommate. None of them has shed tears over self-help books or begged Google for answers with me at 2 a.m. No one is inside my head or my heart to know what I want out of life. No one knows me as well as I do.

You have all the answers. The hard part is sifting through the garbage of other people's opinions and boxes to find them.