I have been procrasinating about this blog and I don’know why – perhaps fear of failure or ridicule? Not necessarily – I basically procrastinate about everything, every day – I try to clean the kitchen and do something in the laundry every morning before I do anything else. The problem is that I constantly play mind tricks and feel I have to do housework in a set order, starting at one end of the house and cleaning the far room (our ensuite, wardrobe and bedroom), then, in linear fashion –  the study, foyer, fireplace, family room, dining area, kitchen, TV room, boys toilet, bathroom, bedrooms, and laundry. Do you see my problem? The kitchen is in the middle of the house – if I’m home all day it comes time to prep dinner and I realise I still need to unstack and stack the dishwasher! Come the week-end the laundry is overflowing! So, sometimes to mix things up I’ll start with the laundry and work my way back to the ensuite 🙂 Exciting times…

Writing a blog post has long been on my ‘to do’ list and I finally have no other excuse and no pressing needs besides to sit down and write 🙂

So, what do I do? I Google ‘procrastinate’ of course!

I found that the Centre for Clinical Interventions has developed a 7 module resource Infopax about understanding and stopping procrastination – well they clearly don’t know what they’re on about making 7 modules – as if a serial procrastinator like me is going to get through that!

The second resource I found is about Structured Procrastination. What I liked about this essay by John Perry is that he recognises the value of procrastinating – us procrastinators are not lazing about doing nothing, we are always doing something, just not the something that we really should be doing…. He says

   “the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not      doing something more important”

Perry’s suggestion is to exploit the above fact, making a list with the most urgent things up the top – this is something I already do, and hence stuff does get done, but not always in a timely manner….

The third and perhaps most useful resource I found was Tim Urban’s post on how to beat procrastination with his waitbutwhy blog. It seems that most procrastinator are planners, however, we plan things to the nth degree and thus accomplish far less in the set time frames that we first envisaged. Therefore, the solution is to be a more effective planner. That sounds way better than trying to stop procrastinating – it’s more positively worded for a start. If we take Tim’s word for it, effective planners create big lists and select a winner….your first priority. Tim recognises the problem of the ‘icky’ item – the thing which needs doing, which is vague, and which you are  unsure about how to do it – he likens it to building a house and suggesting the unpacking of the sticky item into bricks, or units of progress…. to me this just sounds like ammunition in the procrastinators arsenal, but keep reading….

Tim suggests that in order to succeed, procrastinators must make it through the critical entrance:

“stopping whatever you’re doing when it’s time to begin the task, putting away all distractions, and getting started”

and this is the most difficult part of course, but once started, feelings of accomplishment and pride kick in ad spurr you on until you reach the “tipping point”and the end is in sight. Tim has a whole lot more advice and suggestions, as well as funny illustrations to accompany his points – I think it’s worth reading and remembering.

So, my ‘sticky point’ that I have been procrastinating about for about four years now (!) is to write up at least one paper from my PhD thesis and submit for publication in a high impact factor peer reviewed journal….. time to make an effective plan and start choosing the bricks!

And in the mean time – I am aiming to post to this blog on the first Sunday of every month 🙂 You can hold me to that