For the most part, I don’t. Procrastinate, that is. Give me a deadline and I’ll usually come in under it, then use the leftover time to loaf. It’s the best loafing, the loafing of the smug and sanctimonious. Part of the reason I prefer self-employment to working for others is that when I finished a task early at the Baltimore Sun, I was expected to do more work. Where’s the incentive in that? When I finish a book early, I go buy earrings.
But, as some readers of this blog have surely noticed, I haven’t updated my website since February. This is unprecedented since the site’s launch in fall 2001. Oh, I’ve skipped a month here and there, but I’ve never just let it sit there, gathering dust.
Why am I not updating my website? Dunno. True, I’ve been busy, but that doesn’t begin to explain it. Fact is, I’ve written several letters for the website, only to trash them all. There’s so much chatter in the land these days. How much do I want to add?
But I have a few hours this morning before my duties at the Sydney Writers Festival call me away, so maybe I’ll work on something now. Meanwhile: Is there something you always put off? Do you never procrastinate? Always finish things at the last-minute? Stories of time management, please, after the jump. And any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.
Well, I’ve put off writing a play for a while, since we were waitlisted for the Capital Fringe Festival. But now we’re in, so I’m writing as fast as I can. That’s not just procrastination, that’s putting off the procrastination. (Lucky for me, it’s well outlined, something I’ve thought about for a few years now.) Better yet, our show comes at the end of the Festival, which buys us some time…
I think I work best when I have a deadline, even if I just squeak in under it. It does me no good to write blindly, hoping someone will be interested. But if there’s some pressure, someone actively waiting on the other end to read/produce/etc whatever I’m writing, then I have these white hot days of work, followed by mellow days of revision.
Folding and putting away laundry, sweeping and vacuuming, most other household chores. I bought all the paint and things to repaint my bathroom last Sept., on Labor Day. It might get done this weekend. Then again, it might not!
Zelda,
You were very much on my mind yesterday as I gave an interview to Australian radio and cited Lenora Mattingly Weber as one of my great influences.
I mailed my taxes on April 14th this year. That was early. There were a few times that I took a half day vacation from work on the 15th, went in to the office, and worked them out at my desk. There is something about home and taxes that just doesn’t seem to go together.
Ellen DeGeneres had a show called “Procrastinate NOW” that I loved. I learned the skill at my mother’s knee (she was a world class procrastinator). Anything I don’t like to do…housework, wills, returning unpleasant phone calls, etc.; my husband marvels. My sister and I will use each other as our excuses..it works well.
I am a procrastinator. Always have been and have made some minor efforts to rectify it but mostly I’m happy with how things work out. Give me a deadline and I will figure out how long it will take and wait until the last possible moment to start, though I’ll set things up and fiddle around “getting into it” for a while before going off on something else.
When I was a reporter on deadline day the folder where my stories were supposed to go was always empty until five minutes before the stories were do and then seven or eight of them would pop up magically right on time. It was even worse in college. I wrote almost every paper the day it was due and in some cases even in the class when they were due.
And so we circle back to DEAD, AGAIN. You’re a smoker or a nonsmoker. The key is to figure out which one you are.
I still haven’t updated my website. But I had the best writing day in weeks in a Sydney Starbucks and plan to catch a few more hours tomorrow before heading home. Hard to explain, but Book 15 found its missing link this morning.
So you’re saying that the Missing Link has been located in Australia! Good news.
I don’t mind if the website isn’t updated every month because there is TMP for fresh community contact, but I would love it if at least there was a notice posted monthly that said “Not this month, check back next month” or “Gone Fishing”. I feel sad for the people who have just discovered your writing and find the website and might think that it has been abandoned! It’s a small hting, but I think it would be nice.
I have a great answer about my procrastinating. I just haven’t quite gotten around to writing it yet.
One of my father’s sayings: Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday and all is well. This applies to writing and anything else; can wait until tomorrow and all will be fine–unless the stress and anxiety get you first.
Except that I clean up papers and dust before I knuckle down and research and write. My computer area is never cleaner than when I have to do a writing assignment.
Kathy D.