One of the biggest things that helped me with procrastination is understanding that any progress no matter how small still matters.
Ah, procrastination; We all struggle with it from time to time but it seems to pledge us authors a lot (you know that book that we’ve wanted to finish but never got around to doing it because you guessed it procrastination or writers/artist block) and for good reason because we tend to put so much on our plate that we end up falling victim to procrastination because of lack of prioritizing and organization.
I’m currently working on publishing my 5 book and I noticed a constant question that some of my close friends or associates would always ask: “How did you publish your book?”
That question is some what a loaded question because there are a lot of steps that go into publishing a book but the first most important step is finishing the book before it can even be sent to print.
In order to finish the book though we first need to overcome the struggles of procrastination. Here are a few of my tips how I overcome procrastination.
Lack of Prioritization
First Identify where the procrastination is stemming from.
You know that saying too many chef’s spoil the soup? Well the same thing can be applied with writing. Too many ideas and goals can spoil our productivity soup…..metaphorically speaking.
I’ve felt like in the past that my procrastination was just a character flaw but that’s not true, what’s actually triggering this is my lack of prioritizing.
My first tip is to write down all of your goals the first being the one with the highest priority and so on and so forth.
The thing that I notice with myself whenever I’m procrastinating with something is because I don’t know where to start because I haven’t prioritized anything but set everything as a priority, thus leading to too many chefs trying to stir the pot and spoiling it.
Organizing time to Outline
Now after you have your priorities set I want you to pick just one (we only want one chef staring this pot) and next you need to write down all the steps that need to be taken to finish this top priority.
Remember that other saying “If you Fail to plan you plan to fail.”
That’s what we’re gonna apply here so make sure you have those steps you plan to take for that outlined or listed out.
Lastly but not least Time Management is key
Now that we have what the number 1 thing we need to focus on first and the steps that we need to take in order to finish it, it’s time to add it to our calendar. So don’t just make a to do list, it’s time to add our task to different time points. For example on my days off from work during the time I was working part time (I’m no longer working part time and my schedule has changed a bit) this is what my calendar looks like:
- 6am-7:30am: Get up and get kids to school
- 7:35am- 8:45am: Breakfast and positive affirmation
- 8:46am-9:45am: Find reference images for comic
- 9:50am-11:50am: Ink in 2 comic pages
- 12pm: Lunch
And so on and so forth. What I’m practicing right now is making sure not to overload my workflow but to make sure I am utilizing my time and not wasting it. If I already have a task that needs to be done between specific times this helps me to have a productive day.
Now I can go into more detail about how I create a manageable and balanced work flow so that it doesn’t overwhelm me or eat into my personal time but that will be for another time.
So lets recap:
- Prioritizes first main goal
- Outline steps focusing only on completing that goal
- Add those steps to time slots in your calendar or planner
Now that we have our steps I want you to follow along with me and apply them and see how this works for you.
So for this week’s challenge I want you to apply these tips for the next 5 work days. After you’ve done that make sure to come back and tell me how things went!
What should you do next?
If you have any more questions feel free to leave a comment down below and I’d be happy to answer them!
Also if you’re looking for a wholesome, fake marriage trope, AMBW manga webtoon to read to pass the time then you might want to check out Catch Me! Fight Me! Love Me!
