Keeping Focused

Photo by Stefan Cosma on Unsplash

Guilt from procrastination can hang over each of us, and sometimes that procrastination comes from lack of direction or disinterest in our project. Other times, however, it comes from being straight up lazy and undisciplined.

I admit that I feel a bit hypocritical as I sit down to write this post. I often call myself the Queen of Procrastination, and that’s not a title to be proud of. I’m grateful for the people in my life, however, who are doing hard things before me (even if it’s not writing), and it pushes me to do the same, to say, “I can do the hard things too.”

There are at least two kinds of procrastination writer’s often face, addressed below.

Palpable Procrastination

This kind of procrastination is probably the one that most of us think of. It’s blatant and

it looks like: taking a longer lunch break and finding more to eat instead of getting back to writing, turning on the computer and doing everything but writing—watching videos, looking at pictures, and playing games—or, taking so long on other priorities that you don’t have time to write at the end of the day. Maybe you go read your favorite chapter from your last book.

Maybe you quit revising in the middle of a death scene, and instead write a ridiculous rap for your friend that has nothing do with the tossed aside project.

Productive Procrastination

The second kind of procrastination is subtler and perhaps more dangerous. It disguises itself as being necessary to the story, but in truth, keeps shoving the responsibility away.

I often turn on my computer with an excitement to start writing, and then I find more interesting things to do besides actually writing.

Productive procrastination looks like: designing a book cover or collage, taking a personality test for the main character (after doing one for yourself, of course), looking online for the perfect picture of your fantasy land, researching dragon anatomy, or drawing your novel’s cast.

The examples might sound funny, but I have done every. single. one. Including writing the rap.

Buckling Down

I know from experience that avoiding my projects only makes me feel miserable and guilty when the day closes off.

So how do we do it? How do we keep focused? The answer is simple, but taking the action is hard. Because the answer is: do it. Go write. It’s as straightforward as that.

But if you’re like me, that’s not enough. You need motivation and direction. So here goes.

1.      How important is this project to you?

If you truly care enough, you will work on the project. You might think you care, but “actions speak louder than words.” If you’ve been working hard and can’t go on, maybe it’s just time for a break. But don’t let every whiff of procrastination send you clocking off for a vacation.

2.      Eliminate distractions.

Turn off your Wi-Fi. Disconnect yourself from your friends. I do all my writing offline, due to no internet access at my house, and it works. I would spend too much time online otherwise.

Remove games from being easily accessible on your computer. I don’t have Desktop shortcuts to games, and I removed from my quick access the one game there. Now I must type the game into my search bar to play.

When you can’t eliminate the distracting people around you, either go in a different place, or immunize yourself to them. When I write, I listen to the same instrumental songs over and over. This spring, while at a family reunion, I was able to plug my headphones into my laptop, tune out the noise of the people talking, and write a little.

At first, I found music distracting to listen to, but as I kept playing the same songs, they eventually became white noise to me. Now, I can be halfway through a CD and realize that I completely missed my favorite song. At my family reunion, the songs blocked out the unfamiliar, distracting noise, but at the same time, I didn’t really hear the songs.

I still find new CDs or songs with words a bit distracting.

3.      Set goals.

I can’t take the credit for this tip; Stephanie Morrill counseled me this way at a young writers’ conference this past summer. She told me to write for just twenty minutes every day and increase that time every week. Keep track of the amount of words that you write in your time slot and try to beat that wordcount each day. Truth be told, I don’t practice this one yet.

4.      Set up a reward.

If playing games is your weakness, or chocolate, or social media, set those things aside until you’ve written the things you need to. Then, when you’ve done well, you can reward yourself. Reward never comes before work in real life, so why should it in your writing life?

5.      Go write.

Here’s where I say: go write. It’s the last step, but it’s the most important. You don’t need the other steps if you aren’t writing. You’re responsible for your own actions. You can read all the blog posts in the world about how to fix your problem of stalling, but unless you go write, it’s not going to happen.

Earlier I mentioned that certain people in my life keep themselves disciplined, and it pushes me to discipline myself, even though it’s in different areas than them.

I want to be that person for you right now, even as I fail miserably. And I want you to become that person for others. It’s called becoming the wave and making it easier for others to catch it. It’s called taking the hard steps forward that other people will follow. It’s not for you. It’s for those around and behind you who are weaker. People need leaders, and they need others to do the hard things with. Be the leader. Give them the community. Offer your arm for them to link up with.

If you commit to your art of writing, if you structure your life to be one of commitment, who will it inspire to strap down and do what needs to be done, to do the hard things?

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Where do you need discipline? What is your weakness? What helps you focus?

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