Procrastinators Anonymous

An occasional newsletter (when she gets round to it) from Sarah Litvinoff

While I write my next book, The Procrastination Plan, I will be sending out tips and techniques for fellow sufferers. As I believe that procrastination is not ALL bad (uncomfortable though it is) periodically I'll concentrate on insights into reasons behind your inability to do what needs to be done. Sometimes this is because you are ignoring your wise inner voice, which is communicating with you in the only way it can - by going on strike. 

Breaking The Deadlock
We procrastinators put a huge amount of effort into not getting on. When you consider the countless times we think about what we ought to be doing, and the heroic way we avoid doing it — no matter how guilty, stressed or fearful we feel — surely we deserve medals for dedication? In most cases, once you've broken the deadlock you find that doing what you've been putting off is a piece of cake compared to the energy you expended resisting it. 

Just start is the answer, as you've doubtless been told many times by people who've never procrastinated in their lives, and as you've no doubt often told yourself. Just start! 

Just? Start?! How impossible that sounds when you are in full-blown procrastinating mode. And how incredibly easy it seems once — somehow or other — you've broken through the barrier and have finally begun. Indeed, so easy is it, that you probably tell yourself you will never procrastinate again. I know I have. Many times.

I'd say the majority of procrastination problems evaporate once we break the deadlock and start. Of course there are the more complicated issues, where starting IS "just" starting and is only part of the process. I'll be dealing with these in the book and in future issues of this newsletter. But as getting started would solve most of them, I'll be devoting quite a lot of space to a variety of techniques to kick start you. Variety is important as procrastinators are usually immensely skilled in finding different ways of not getting on. Offering one technique is like cutting off the head of the Hydra — two grow back, and both will be bleating, "I tried that and it worked for a while but not any more!"

As this is the first newsletter, it feels appropriate to begin with the technique that stopped me procrastinating about writing this book.

One morning in February I met with Emma, the editor of my last book, who said she'd like me to come up with an idea for a new one. I didn't need to think twice about it: for ages I'd wanted to write about procrastination, as it comes up with almost every client I coach, and I've been fighting it for a lifetime myself. I also knew I had some original ideas about it, particularly to do with decoding the messages from what I call "your inner procrastinator" — when procrastination is a symptom of something that needs to change in your life.

"Fine!" said Emma, "Send me a proposal to consider."

Now I LOVE writing book proposals. I've written dozens of them, for myself and other people. This was a book I really wanted to do, and I'd been thinking about it for a long time. Yet it was almost exactly five months to the hour from my meeting with Emma to me pressing send on the e-mail containing the proposal.

You, fellow procrastinator, don't need me to tell you how bad I felt each time I thought about doing the proposal during those five months, as I tried to will myself into getting down to it and failed. If I'd used the deadline technique and committed to send it to Emma on a particular day I might have saved myself a lot of heartache. But I didn't. I did, though, try a number of my most trusted techniques (the five-minute rotation; the "what's the simple first step?"; the "do it first thing in the morning", amongst others) but although these helped me accumulate a list of random ideas and headings, I couldn't make them coalesce into a proposal.

Then I spent the day with my friend Mims (the lifecaster CJ Munn http://www.rockabelly.co.uk/) and she reminded me of the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Although I'd never worked through it, I had used the "Morning Pages" technique, a cornerstone of the process. This requires you to write three pages long-hand first thing in the morning. It's supposed to be a stream of consciousness. The main rule is that you don't stop to think, but continue writing even if you can't think of anything to say until the three pages are filled. Indeed, writing "I can't think of anything to say," over and over again is legitimate, until your subconscious kicks in with something more interesting.

You can only experience the power of this technique by doing it. Although my handwriting is too indecipherable for even me to read it back (reading back is not the point) I can remember much of what I wrote on Day One. I started off whining about my uselessness and procrastination. I went on to ask myself why — WHY? — I couldn't write my proposal. By the end of the three pages, about 15 minutes later, I had identified that the stumbling block was that although I had a lot to say I wasn't at all clear about how to structure it for the best. I was then motivated to go straight to my desk and play around with the jumble I'd already written.

The next morning I concentrated my three pages on wondering about the best structure for the proposal, and by the time I'd finished it was clear enough in my mind for me to work on the proposal and finish it by the evening. I'm sure you can appreciate how wonderful that felt after five months of paralysis.

One of the reasons I'd avoided this simple and powerful technique for a while is because it's such a faff. Getting up early to write three pages (taking 15-20 minutes) is not an attractive proposition. I can understand why clients of mine who have to leave early for work, or who have young children, baulk at it. But everyone who makes the effort to do it finds it rewarding: miraculous even. It's a direct route to your wise self.

As an aid to beating procrastination, Morning Pages work when you are bemused by your inability to do something that needs to be done, or that you very much want to do. It's not only for creative endeavours. I've had clients use it to work through employment issues — specifically dealing with difficult colleagues or whether to give in their notice.

Matters like these are often distinguished by a reluctance to examine the issues and the possible outcomes. The act of focusing on them and writing what comes to mind cuts through indecision and clarifies what you need to know. Also people have used it for much more mundane matters: clearing out the garage, for instance. Once you've spent some of the time complaining about the chore and why you don't want to do it, the discipline of continuing with the writing can result in an action plan and a strong sense of what's getting in the way of that crucial first move.

These are the steps if you want to try the technique:

• Do it first thing in the morning, even if it means getting up earlier.

• If this is truly impossible, do it as soon as you can (in a tea break; on public transport on the way to work; when your child is napping; at your desk before you start work). 

• Write, rather than type. It doesn't matter if your writing is bad — it's the process that counts, not the result. 

• Or be a rebel and type it onto the computer instead. All that matters is that it works for you. Keep at it for three pages though — for this quantity counts for more than quality.

• Use A4 paper: either loose sheets or a notebook, and don't stop until you fill all three sheets. It's what comes out when you feel you have nothing more to say which is often the most useful.
  

• Keep writing, and don't pause for thought, even if it's mental scribble. You'll surprise yourself with what you produce. 

• Set yourself a subject — in this case why you are procrastinating and how to become motivated — typically you'll write something sensible, then something stupid, and finally something WISE.

• Aim to do this for a whole week. Some matters are complex and not very easily unpicked. And if you answer your own questions quickly keep at it anyway. Enjoy finding out what else your subconscious produces for you to ponder. 

HAPPY EXPERIMENTING! 

Sarah X

COACHING WITH SARAH

http://www.sarahlitvinoff.com

"In the business of bringing out your best"

 

If you have a tip or anecdote you want to share, or a question for me to answer in a future Procrastinators Anonymous, please submit it through 'Send Us Stuff'.