I think I have found about five actions you can take to beat procrastination.

Procrastination is the action of putting off doing something, a postponing of a deadline. 

Have you ever procrastinated? I think we all have. Especially in school. We didn’t really WANT to put in the work to finish that science project, or that history project. We didn’t want to work on that speech debate in college either, did we?

Well, procrastination is my favorite friend these days. I mean I have been inching toward the third book in the Shannon Wallace mystery series. I selected a few images over the weekend that might work for a cover. I did a bit of editing. So, it isn’t like I am not doing ANYTHING. But my deadline is today, and it is going to go right by unfinished. Unnoticed. Unaccomplished. In other words, no action.

I have some good excuses. One being that I have a hurt foot. Yeah, too much treadmill time might have been a bad idea.

But while I wait to see if normal activity is going to make it swell again, I have to ask myself–

What can I do to  be more proactive, more productive?

Five actions you can take now

1. Actually do the work. Spending time with other writers can be fun, and the talk between you really enlightening, but getting the writing down is more important. Actually take the actions to move you forward.
2. Minimize distractions like the games on Facebook. These are the bane of my existence. I have to make myself ignore them. Do not take actions like these.
3. Time yourself. Set a clock and don’t allow yourself to wander from the job at hand. It’s okay to set timed deadlines. Tell yourself you can go play that game after 20 minutes of work. Then get back to it after 20 minutes of game time! Actions can be fun.
4. If deadlines shut your creativity down, then don’t do that. Find another way to increase your activity level. Like…a chocolate bar! Actions like these might increase productivity like a dangling carrot. Hehe…only if you are a fitness maniac like me.
5. Examine what it is that isn’t working. This may be a put-the-earbuds-in activity. Sometimes we need to shut out ALL distractions to be focused on the situation at hand in order to fix what is keeping us from going forward with it. Taking action means being focused.

All in all, it is far more important to be gentle with yourself, especially if you have some injury like I do that is keeping your activity limited. But if you have to be off your foot(feet) then try to make some time to get your writing in. Even two pages or 500 words is an accomplishment you can take pride in.

Taking some of these actions will shoo away the blues for most of us.

Heck, this blog post is over 400 words. See, I took my own advice!