Because of the amount of projects on my plate, a lot of my writing for my third book has been pushed to the weekends. This has actually worked out well since it gives me the week to let some ideas percolate in my brain before I start working them out on paper.
My favorite time for weekend writing is Saturday mornings. I like to get some writing done to kick off the weekend right before turning my attention to other projects or tasks. This past weekend was no different. I had a plan to add some text to the book’s introduction and had made some notes about what I wanted to say. I was primed and ready to go.
But Saturday morning came and I puttered around a bit. I posted a podcast episode, which required that I get the show notes ready to go. And then I had to create the social media image for that episode and post it to Instagram. And then SoundCloud had an issue, so I spent some time getting the player that I post on my podcast website working.
And… a couple hours went by.
My favorite window for early morning Saturday morning writing was gone.
The worst part is two-fold: (1) I had gotten up with some words already in my head ready to be written and I chose to do something else instead and (2) I think I knew, even if subconsciously, that putting off the writing had the danger of meaning that it might not get done at all. And I chose to put it off anyway.
(I’m not entirely sure why self-sabotage happens like this, but I’d bet a large chunk of change that most of it has to do with fear.)
I definitely had a moment where I sat at my computer and thought that the window of good writing time was over and that I should just move on with my day. That probably would have been the easy thing to do.
But then, I got over it.
I told myself that books don’t get written in ideal writing windows, that I’m a professional, and that I need to stop making excuses and just do the work.
So that’s what I did.
Six pages and 1,700 words later, I was all the better for it.
To think on:
- What are you procrastinating on right now? What stories do you tell yourself about why you can’t do that thing?
- What pep talks do you give yourself when you need to step up and do the work anyway in less-than-ideal circumstances?