Christian Writing Five Steps To Overcome Procrastination

[Johne]

My friend Sue Campbell is a self publishing and marketing expert and shared this wisdom in an email to her list this morning.

She has a pitch at the bottom. Only sign up if that's really something you want and need, but I know her personally (we had lunch together in Nashville in 2019, and we've stayed in touch ever since) and I recommend her services highly.

Why do you procrastinate?

I posed this question to our Happily Ever Author members recently and here were some of the answers:

• "I procrastinate when I'm afraid."
• "Because something I need to do feels too big or too intimidating."
• "I procrastinate when I don't know where to start."
• "I procrastinate because I feel overwhelmed."

These are normal thoughts from our human brains. But when we get stuck there, we don't finish things that are important to us.

One of the problems I see is that people make their tendency to procrastinate mean that they don't have will power. They think there's something wrong with them if they are procrastinating. They make a moral judgment about it.

I've come to see that overcoming procrastination is not just about will power.

Procrastination is a signal that it's time to work with your mind in a loving and understanding way, while still holding yourself accountable.

How to work with procrastination in 5 steps...​

1. Do a thought download and see what results your thoughts are getting you.

Example: You have an incomplete manuscript. Your thought is "It's going to take a long time." When you think that, you feel hopeless. That feeling is what causes the procrastination. The result, if you keep thinking that way, is that your manuscript will never be complete.

2. Figure out what "part" of you that thought is coming from.

We all, to some extent, have multiple parts to our personalities. You are both a tantruming toddler and a loving parent. You are a student and a teacher. You are a slacker and an achiever. What part of your personality is serving up the thought that's causing the procrastination? Expanding our example above, the thought "This is going to take a long time" is coming from the impatient child part of you.

3. Now ask, what am I gaining by procrastination?

The impatient child in you is gaining instant gratification by procrastinating. By playing a video game instead of writing, your impatient child gets a neurochemical hit of pleasure that it can't get through sustained work on a manuscript.

There is a part of your brain that's trying to be really nice to you by procrastinating. This is why it doesn't work to beat the shit out of yourself by procrastinating! Then your brain has even more reason to try and make up for it by doing things that are more instantly gratifying and the procrastination continues.

Honor the part of yourself that wants you to feel good.

4. Now answer the question, "What am I losing by procrastinating?"

Take an honest assessment of what you're losing, or what you'll never have, if the procrastination continues. If you never finish the manuscript, you'll never have the pleasure of holding your book in your hand or getting an email from a fan. You'll never have the satisfaction of finishing a long term project that stretches your skills. You're cheating another part of yourself by letting that impatient child have its way.

5. Have the two parts of yourself negotiate to reach a common understanding and a new story to tell yourself.

Part of you will be the mediator who works to honor both the impatient child and the writer who wants to finish a book. What do you need to be thinking—what story do you need to tell yourself—to honor both of those parts of yourself?

Maybe it's: "I'm just going to make a little bit of progress on my writing every single day and then do something fun." Or maybe it's "This is a muscle I want to build and I'm willing to let my inner child have a tantrum about it." Try out a number of thoughts until you find one that leads you to take the action you were procrastinating.

Key takeaway

Start thinking of procrastination as a sign that it's time to slow down and look at what's happening in your brain. So often, procrastination is simply a misguided attempt to take care of yourself. You are trying to avoid discomfort that's a necessary part of growth. It's understandable, but it's not going to get you where you ultimately want to go.

If procrastination has been a challenge for you, then you belong in my Goal Getter School for writers. You'll get the coaching necessary to overcome this pattern of behavior and help you reach the accomplishment you're capable of. Applications are open until March 31, or until the program fills. School starts April 5.

Click to shrink...

 

[suspensewriter]

Thanks for posting this, @Johne!

 

[quietspirit]

Interesting, what I get out of this is that we do it to ourselves! Ami right in my thinking on this?

 

[Jeff Potts]

My friend Sue Campbell is a self publishing and marketing expert and shared this wisdom in an email to her list this morning.

She has a pitch at the bottom. Only sign up if that's really something you want and need, but I know her personally (we had lunch together in Nashville in 2019, and we've stayed in touch ever since) and I recommend her services highly.

Click to shrink...

I'll have to check this out later...