Notes from a Hired Pen: On Procastination

Readers!

 

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I’ve never been a big procrastinator. I usually turn in assignments early because I feel better when I get things done. But last week, I found myself pushing off two tasks that I did not feel like doing. They started out on my mid-week to-do lists, and I not doing them long enough that they ended up square at the top my to-do list for Monday.

Neither one was major, either: a small revision, and writing a short piece where I had done all the research and interviews. But I could not get myself to do them.

Below is what I do whenever the procrastination bug strikes. I give this advice with the giant caveat that this is not a persistent challenge for me, as I know it can be for a lot of people. I’m not the kind of writer who will clean her whole house when on deadline because normally I want to get things done, for example. But sometimes, it happens.

Figure out what the problem is. There’s a zillion things that can get in the way of me taking care of a simple task. Maybe the story bores me, or I don’t like the editor who requested the revision. Sometimes the request for changes is so byzantine that I know it’ll take longer for me to sort through the comments than to make the changes themselves. That wasn’t the case with either of these tasks. I knew the revision would take — tops — five minutes, and the story I had to write was interesting, and a layup. So what was the problem?

I was just tired, I think. Not only was I racing to get two weeks of work done in one because I’m going away at the end of the month (unless I adopt another dog, which is unlikely; or I get sick, which fingers crossed does not happen), but I’ve also been getting used to and training Bonnie the Button. She’s a delightful dog, but at only about one year old, likes to take things that she shouldn’t. I call her the Pokey Puppy, because she has poked her teeth into my sock while I was wearing it.

I’ve also been running again, and running more miles than I have in a very long time So: tired. I didn’t feel like working, which of course as a self employed writer, isn’t ideal.

Keep putting it onto the to-do list. Despite not doing these two things, I kept carrying them over from one day’s to-do list to the next. That meant I didn’t forget them, and I knew I’d get so annoyed with repeating them on my list, that I’d eventually just want to cross them off.

Tell myself what I can do if I get the thing I don’t want to do done. In this case, I told myself that if I just took care of these two things, I would leave myself enough time to take Bonnie to the dog park on Monday.

Get it done. So on Sunday night while my dinner cooked, I opened up the revision, did the five minutes of work, and schedule-sent an email to go out the next morning with them. Then, right as my coffee finished brewing on Monday morning, I knocked out the easy story, which allowed me to go run, then take Bonnie to the dog park (the run went well; Bonnie had reservations about the whole dog park thing, but we’re working on it).

Anyway — the trip! All things holding steady, my mother and I are leaving for Italy shortly. If you’d like to follow along our adventures, Instagram is the way.

Ciao!

 

Recent Bylines

“Iowa biobank: A treasure trove of maternal health data” for Medicine@Iowa

“ERPs will pack more punch in 2024” for CIO Dive

What I’m Reading

• A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas. A Christmas themed romance novella in February? Why not! I’ve liked Kleypas’ other books, so when I saw this in a Little Free Library, I scooped it up.
• Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Philip Gefter. Gefter banged on a bit too long in the last 20 pages, but otherwise this is a great look at a time in American history through the lens of one play turned into movie. I picked it up because I am, you could say, an Elizabeth Taylor stan, and glad I did. If you would like a book about her relationship with Richard Burton (who played George to her Martha), I highly recommend Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger; or the newish biography Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit and Glamour of an Icon by Kate Anderson Brower.

What I’m Watching

• Mr. and Mrs. Smith. What a weird, fun, show that felt more about a relationship than…spying and killing people and stuff. It has very little to do with the movie of the same name, for what it’s worth. Also, I love texting “hihi” to friends who have already seen it.
• Griselda. This is a Netflix miniseries about Griselda Blanco, the “Godmother of Cocaine,” who was (in)famous in Miami in the 1980s. It’s typical in that it shows the rise of drug runner, and yes the scenes in Miami nightclubs are glamorous (and VERY well done in terms of costuming of that era), but of course it also shows the fall. I thought it was too long, but worth my time. Also, congrats to Sophia Vergara. She is of course great at comedy, but she really showed she can do drama too.

Nail Polish of the Week

Suzi – The First Lady of Nails by OPI. When I’m stuck on what color to pick, I ask a friend for a suggestion. She said dark green. This deep olive fit the bill, without looking too Christmasy.

 

Until next time,
Jen A. Miller

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