Yakapin

Exemplary work needs time, passion, and a lot of handwork. Unless a person’s naturally brilliant that every idea that comes out of his/her mind would sound like a whistling lavenders to an abandoned lang. Most of the time when I want to start writing, I suddenly get the urge of making a long to-do list, find other things to do, wait. Some seem reasonable, others menial and trivial at all.

I never really thought that I just made those to procrastinate on my writing.

1. Make really long TO-DO LIST

Priority: Writing

But…

I do the others first.

There’s like a blast of tasks to finish. I force myself to do the easier ones first. I do know in “theory” that I should work on the bigger load first because I can allot more time to it. Then I move to the easier, smaller tasks after.

Well, I do the opposite. So, my writing gets postpone until the last minute. Sometimes even put on hold and be a to-do priority number one (again!) the next day, and the next. This aggravates to totally not writing anything.

2. Get myself distracted

Aside from the extremely long to-do list, I squeeze other stuffs in between.

• Movies on TV (which seems to be endless, thanks to cable TV)
• TV series to binge watch (Oh, I’ve got to see the new episode. No, I’ve got to see that first season again)
• Pick up a book, read through a couple of pages. Pause. Face the laptop. Sees another book and read. Repeat.
• Pick up my phone look through: email, facebook, twitter (even though I rarely use it), read random articles. Checks the clock, oh! Two hours done.

In the end, no output. However, in this case, I try to give myself some false assurances.

“I’m simply looking for inspiration. This will help me later.”

Nah! Majority of the things I’ve seen gets sucked up by other never-ending distractions around me. Then I forget about the inspiration that actually kicked in some time in the interval.

Oh, cute puppies.

3. Cook. Eat. Get Hungry. Repeat.

This ever delicious and indulging form of procrastination. I let myself enjoy the comfort of food before I go on with my writing. I am not so sure, but once I thought of writing, I also feel hungry. 🙂

I go to the kitchen, find things I can use and cook a meal or prepare a simple snack.

Satisfied!

I walk back to my laptop to write. Damn! I’m sleepy.

Dozing off, but can’t. Walk to the kitchen again and prepare some coffee. But later I find some sweet treats and just eat. Forget about the time.

This last one I really can’t get out of my system. No excuses, it’s food! I need it to survive. But my writing…

—

Now, I try my best to write even short sentences early in the morning. I have my pencil and paper (not laptop) near my bed. When I wake up every morning, I say my prayers, read a Bible verse, and start writing. Anything. This lets me continue with writing and helps me get through the day better.

When I have to post something, I just have to check my notes. This also has some let downs because I have to find the proper notes to use. Most of the time my notes are just all over the place. But I’m getting better. I think. I hope. 🙂