How to avoid procrastination

The demon for many creative people is procrastination. Many ideas lay dormant and unrealized as other ‘things’ take our energy and effort. There are many reasons as to why we procrastinate and some are deep rooted in our psychological make up. However, there are a few quick and easy tips to help you overcome ‘creative’ procrastination.

• Liver and Ice Cream – Sometimes we simply don’t feel like doing that creative work, but if it is our livelihood then it is a matter of importance. Give yourself a ‘gift’ if you spend some time doing what needs to be done. Rewards can be a very good incentive; have a little ice cream after you’ve eaten the liver.
• Allow yourself to make a s**t first draft – I know many creative people, including myself, who seek perfection in everything they do, and if they feel perfection is out of reach will not even make the effort. This is impossible! Therefore, don’t worry if your first creative attempt doesn’t work. Creativity is as much a journey as a final destination.
• Allow yourself to fail – closely linked to the point above, sometimes what we create, or make, doesn’t work. This is allowed. Don’t worry, we only truly grow by failing. This is a universal truth, trust me.
• Make sure you know what you want – we can put off attempting our creative project because we are not sure what we really want to do. Knowing the goal of our project keeps us focussed. If we are focussed it becomes difficult to procrastinate.
• Remove those distractions – obvious, but those of us who procrastinate will keep the TV remote or the google search box within reach when we should know better. You may find it useful to take yourself away from your comfort zone to do that creative masterpiece, or even unplug the modem.

These ideas only touch the surface but for serial procrastinators like myself, they are well worth spelling out time and time again.

If you want to to do some deeper digging into how and why we procrastinate, and therefore how to overcome it, take a look at The Now Habit by Dr Neil Fiore in our book store.