Here then are my top very important, essential things I simply must take care of before I can put one word down on paper:
1. Post a new blog, like this one
2. Update my Facebook and Twitter status
3. Play a game of Spider Solitaire
4. Walk the dog
5. Empty the dishwasher
6. Play another game of Spider Solitaire
7. Accept/reject Facebook friend requests
8. Answer e-mails
9. Check the sales ranking of each of my books on Amazon
10. Play another game of Spider Solitaire (will I never get tired of you, my love?)
Bonus: Take a new picture of myself with my Mac's handy-dandy PhotoBooth software (see above, note the link to #4 on the left...she's waiting for her walk)
So what do you do to put off what you should be doing? Really--tell me so I have one more reason to put off working on my work in progress...
Ah...I know this well...you mean like I'm doing right now???
ReplyDeleteD.J.
You are such a tease with your shirtless pic. :)
ReplyDelete~smooches~
Jase
It's finally warm enough in Seattle to take my shirt off.
ReplyDeleteUm, maybe I read author blogs?
ReplyDeleteI didn't learn procrastination from my mom, she was one of those people who sets up early "false deadlines" so she has breathing room. Yeesh. No, I came by mine honestly, and where I'm trying to find patterns in the knockdown texture on the ceiling or identifying the number of birds outside my window by sound alone, I'm good at it. We should have a procrastination face off. What's spider solitaire?
ZAM
Gotta love the dog's wait in the pic! Does she have a name? Very humble and honest blog :)
ReplyDeleteIf you aren't already acquainted with that game, I'm not going to lead you down that path. It sounds like you already have enough reasons to procrastinate, ZA. Leave Spider Solitaire alone, I'm begging you.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the dog's name is Lily. She's my boss.
ReplyDeletePaid work is always a good procrastination tool for me. As are my yoga and dance classes. I'm too fidgety to write if I haven't moved around a bit first!
ReplyDeleteThen I have to read emails, do the whole Facebook thing.
Then I have to make a pot of tea and turn on the stereo or television on low so I can have background noise.
Then I have to check my phone for new text messages.
Then, I can write.
Read blog posts like this one.
ReplyDeleteClean house (which I actually should do, anyway...)
Check email on my phone, since I try not to check it on the computer and, you know, distract myself.
Take the dogs aka "The Damn-inals" out. Again.
Reorganize my notes on the book I'm supposed to be writing. Getting back to that now. I'll return later to hit refresh and check up on new comments. ;)
I go to authors' blogs, then see the links for their books. Then I feel guilty and know I should be writing, so I go back to my WIP. After staring at the blank screen for a while (in denial that I really AM procrastinating), I at least do edits.
ReplyDeleteTonight I procrastinated by going to Amazon to find MP3 mood music to write by.
But...when I'm really raring to write and the words are burning up the roads in my head? Then there is something else I really DO have to do (like the ol' day job), and CAN'T write. There's GOT to be a happy medium to all of this. Sigh.
I go visit my mother who has Alzheimers, so she won't forget who I am. Then I clean up the various "piles" of papers I constantly leave lying all around the house, because I have to deal with them but I didn't have time at that second...mostly I just move the piles around to another spot. Do a load of laundry. Cook/bake something for my husband and teenagers to eat. Read e-mails and update my website. Wonder yet again how on earth I'm ever going to find that holy grail of readers who clamor for anything I write, when there are so damn many of us. Obsessively edit yet again, the finished work.
ReplyDelete