Planning for 2013: Procrastination is Still My Middle Name

I published the first version of this blog post for Chiseled in Rock December 28, 2010. I am a master at pouring  my own good intentions down the drain with the dregs of my morning coffee..

I did complete one first suspense novel draft in 2012 and finished revising the other suspense novel I wrote in 2011, so I'm not a total loser. Overall, however, I wrote blog posts, blog-hopped, blog-challenged, e-mailed, wrote Facebook status updates, tweeted, surfed the Internet, gardened, traveled, and played more than I wrote.

Time management seems like a common sense issue. Doesn't it? Yet, here I am, enjoying another innovative way to procrastinate:

Yes, I take my Katie Cat outside on a harness and leash and she walks me around the yard as she searches for grasshoppers, smells the lavender, and tries to dig up the seedlings in my garden.

Truth is, I have no intention of giving up fun, but I hope to get a lot more writing done over the next five years. My plan is pretty simple, and no different from the one I posted here two years ago:

1. Focus on long-term goals.
2. Set reasonable weekly and daily benchmarks.
3. Keep track.
4. Adjust benchmarks as needed.
5. Don't sweat the small stuff.

In addition to my regular calendar, I have the 2013 writing planner from Northern Colorado Writers (designed by Kerrie Flanagan and illustrated by April J. Moore) dedicated to goals and deadlines for writing new stuff, revising old stuff, queries and submissions, and de-stressing (also known as exercise). Keeping word counts worked for me in the past, so I'm adding that technique back to my plan.

If procrastination is also your middle name, and you need to rethink the way you spend your time, read a few of the articles in the archives at Leo Babauta's zenhabits.

There are several helpful posts at Fuel Your Writing, including 7 Writing Distractions I'm Kissing Goodbye by Suzannah Freeman and After the Break: How to Get Writing Again by Robert Smedley.

Want more? Just Google "writerly procrastination" and you'll find enough articles to keep you reading (instead of writing) for weeks. Or you can knuckle down and set your goals.

What long-term goal is at the top of your list for 2013? Mine is the same as it always is...write 500 words a day, not counting blog posts.

Pat Stoltey

Just Do It!

by Pat Stoltey

Sunday morning I did something I haven't done in a long time. After I finished reading the paper, I poured a cup of coffee and went into the living room for a thinking session. There's a special chair in there for meditating or puzzling through a problem. It's a beige swivel rocker that can be turned toward the picture window. Rocking seems to help my thinking process, moving it along in a way. The motion is calming, and don't we all think better when we're calm?

What I needed to think about was:

Reading, critiquing, blogging, and tweeting,
Lallygagging, sleeping, gardening, and eating,
There's not enough time to do them all,
Who in the flying hell do I call?

For help, I mean. Is there such a thing as procrastination-busters? A group dedicated to breaking the television/movie habit? How about a twelve-step method for beating the "meet me for coffee at Starbucks" or "let's do lunch" addiction?

The same two manuscripts I was talking about three months ago, one that needed "one more good read" and the other that was ready for revisions, have somehow been dumped back into the "one more good read" category. They're printed out, sitting on the otherwise clean and dust free dining room table, waiting patiently.

Meanwhile, I'm fiddling with my own blog and making contacts to schedule more guest bloggers, collecting information for the Chiseled in Rock posts, doing what needs to be done to publish my second Sylvia and Willie mystery on Kindle and Nook, and playing Spider Solitaire. I had two raised garden beds installed, so I'm outside more, watering and finding new things to plant. I'm planning a couple of trips to visit family, and Skyping with the granddaughter and her mommy and daddy as often as their schedule permits. I rewrite my To Do List daily, but I've recently noticed it doesn't have anything on it about daily writing time.

What is it about sitting down to write or revise, or to send out those queries and submissions, that's so difficult? I see the question pondered over and over by writers. I did get a little poke from my Horoscope on Sunday though. (Yes, I read my Horoscope. When you stop giggling, read on.) It said:

"It won't help you to be a perfectionist now. Get your work out there in whatever form it happens to exist, at least to a small audience who would help you take it to the next level."

So I thought and thought and rocked and rocked. What I finally decided as I sipped my coffee and rocked is this: Revising my manuscripts forever is one more form of procrastination. It's a lot of work compiling a list of agents and/or publishers, checking out the submission guidelines, writing a separate query for each one, logging the submissions on a spreadsheet, and on and on.

It's painful waiting for replies to queries that never come. And what if an agent or publisher likes a book and wants me to produce another one in a year? Could I do that? On the other hand, what if every rejection is accompanied by constructive feedback, but all the feedback is different? What will I do then? Maybe I better revise the novels one more time before I send those queries.

So Sunday morning I rocked, thought about my procrastination as irrational fear, took a deep breath and let it out. I felt better. Even felt a little bit like working on that final proofread and putting together my agent list with notes on submission guidelines for each. Just do it, I thought. Just do it.

But first, I set the sun tea jug outside, wrote this blog post and pre-scheduled it for today, pre-scheduled Bailey Cates' (aka Cricket McRae) post on my own blog for yesterday, dug up the dying lavender plant near the house and replaced it with gladiolus bulbs, and scheduled a Super Shuttle pickup to the airport for my upcoming trip.

And so it goes.

This is an updated version of a 2010 post on my own blog.

The Writing Life: Facing Challenges

by Pat Stoltey

I’m a pushover for challenges, at least the good kind. Right after my decision to cut back on blogging to give me more time for writing, I signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2012. Sorry if you didn’t get in on the action. The deadline for sign-ups was yesterday.

The A to Z Challenge is all about making new blogger friends. And that’s all about widening our circle of contacts to include folks who aren’t necessarily like us. By that, I mean the challenge is an opportunity to link up with bloggers who may live in other parts of the world, bloggers who don’t write the same things we write or who don’t write at all, and bloggers who focus on causes, whether they be health and welfare, religion, or politics. One of the things I enjoy most about this challenge is the people I’ve met who stayed in touch throughout the year—reaching out, supporting, sympathizing, and sometimes even conducting an interview or hosting a guest blog post.

I have another challenge for this week. I’ve dilly-dallied on writing the synopsis for my suspense manuscript, but I need to get that job done before I start the submission process. This task cannot be put off one more day. That's another reason my blog post this week is short and simple. I'm working so hard my computer is smoking.

Challenges for writers can be great or small, fun or traumatic. Most of us have experienced the good and the bad. What is the biggest writing challenge you face this week? How are you going to meet that challenge?

Five Things Writers Can Do Instead of Writing

by Pat Stoltey

1. Memorize a poem

2. Listen to a meditation CD

3. Take silly photos

4. Crochet granny squares

5. Chop up a chocolate bar, mix it with peanut butter, and eat it with a spoon

Procrastination. We all do it. What’s your favorite way to waste your writing time?

Ten Cheap Ways to Relax When You Have Too Many To Dos on Your List

By Pat Stoltey (originally published on April 19, 2011 -- but during the holidays, we can use all the de-stressing tips we can get)

1. Stand up. Take four boxing jabs that do not connect with a living creature or anything hard enough to hurt your hand. Sit down. Repeat ten times.

2. Spend exactly one hour on a priority project, then pat yourself on the back for making outstanding progress. Go to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee or a glass of ice water (or whatever), and stand at the window for five minutes to watch the weather. Repeat as needed. You never know what the weather might do if you aren't paying attention.

3. Spend thirty minutes to an hour doing a chore that will raise your heart rate. I took my box cutter to the garage and spent an hour cutting cardboard for the recycle bin. It's harder than you think, but I feel good (and I didn't cut myself, either).

4. Stand with your back against a wall. Make sure your heels, butt, and shoulders touch the wall. Suck in your gut and try to press the small of your back to the wall. If you can actually do this, don't tell me because it will make me feel like a wuss. Hold. Relax. Drop your head to stretch your neck and touch the back of your head to the wall. Hold. Relax. Repeat the lower back and neck stretch five times. Roll your shoulders.

5. Get up very early. Brew a pot of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer herbal tea. Drink it iced or hot. While you drink the tea, sit quietly in a chair and think. Relax your shoulders. Close your eyes. Don't drop the tea in your lap. When you finish the tea (not the whole pot, silly), check the sunrise. Admire it. Take a picture.

6. Examine your To Do List and pick something you don't really have to do. If your personal life and your career will not suffer, cross the item off the list. There. Doesn't that feel better? For best results, do it again.

7. Take a ten minute music break. Put your favorite CD in your boom box. Sit still and listen or sing along. Get up and dance if you want to. A little Friends in Low Places will lift your spirits. Oh, what the heck, make it a thirty minute or more music break and play the whole CD.

8. Yell. Okay, first wait until everyone is out of the house. Then holler as loud as you can. I personally don't care what you say when you yell, but if your neighbors can hear you, you might want to yell song lyrics or something similar that won't offend or alarm. You only need to do this for a minute.

9. Buy a small drum and learn the basic hand positions and rhythms (or not...it works even if you have no idea what you're doing). Take occasional five minute drumming breaks. It feels great. If you're sticking to a strict budget, buy a kid's tambourine. Or use a waste can turned upside down. Be creative. The point is, pound on something and feel the beat (but don't hurt yourself).

10. Stop working. Think. Why are you so stressed? Can't say no to new projects? Your husband is practicing Morse code right across the hall? You left your holiday baking until the last minute and your company arrives tomorrow? Whatever the reason, own it. You got yourself into this mess, you need to work your way out of it. Now go to the bakery and buy goodies. When you get home, pull the plug on hubby's noisy hobby. Take a deep breath. Then another deep breath. Doesn't that feel good?

Planning for 2011: Procrastination is My Middle Name

If you read Janet Fogg's Citation: The Order of the Chocolate Donut yesterday, and are totally bummed because you couldn't claim you'd written a complete To Do List during 2010 and are therefore an undeserving goof-off, then I'm frankly amazed you showed your face here today.

But you are here.

That means you want to do better next year. Me, too.

I did complete one first draft in 2010, so I'm not a total loser. Overall, however, I wrote blog posts, blog-hopped, blog-challenged, e-mailed, wrote Facebook status updates, tweeted, surfed the Internet, and played more than I wrote.

Time management seems like a common sense issue. Doesn't it? Yet, here I am, learning another innovative way to procrastinate:


Don't worry. I have no intention of giving up fun. My plan is pretty simple.

1. Focus on long-term goals.
2. Set reasonable weekly and daily benchmarks.
3. Keep track.
4. Adjust benchmarks as needed.
5. Don't sweat the small stuff.

In addition to my regular calendar, I now have a 2011 writing planner dedicated to goals and deadlines for writing new stuff, revising old stuff, queries and submissions, and de-stressing (also known as exercise). Keeping word counts worked for me in the past, so I'm adding that technique back to my plan.

If procrastination is also your middle name, and you need to rethink the way you spend your time, read a few of the articles in The Unsurpassable Productivity List: A Handy Guide to Getting Important Things Done at Leo Babauta's zenhabits.

There are several helpful posts at Fuel Your Writing, including 7 Writing Distractions I'm Kissing Goodbye by Suzannah Freeman and After the Break: How to Get Writing Again by Robert Smedley.

The first goal on my list is to write at least 500 words every day. Blog posts and e-mails do not count as part of that total.

What goal is at the top of your list for 2011?

Pat Stoltey