Last night I finished a writing project that had been screaming at the edges of my mind for the past seven months. Counting backwards, that’s February, January, December, November, October, September…OMG …AUGUST.
What was this scary monster? Actually, not so scary except for the shadow it cast on the inner cave of my brain. I had to distill a year’s work for a client who really matters, to create 45 pages of boiled-down, lucid prose about Complex Trends and Big Ideas.
But I’d been putting off this project for so long that when the deadline truly loomed – Sixty Feet High and Six Days Away, I had to close every door and silence every phone. Six days, 14 hours each…
Save, Close, Send…
The weight of the world dropped from the base of my neck. I breathed from a very deep place and dropped into blissful, dreamless sleep.
Did I mention that every one of my colleagues here at ROI also saw that deadline shimmering on the far horizon, coming closer and closer? They watched me the way people used to watch Houdini lock himself up in chains…”Uh…How’s she gonna get out of THIS one??”
Now that the (unnecessary) crisis has passed, it’s official:
I’m on the No-Procrastination Diet.
Scientific research sits squarely on my side: Procrastination is the biggest drain of mental energy other than…plotting to murder your spouse (in which case, by all means procrastinate). The lesson? Do what matters first. Make what matters be the joy, not the burden, in your life.
Because here’s the sad truth: that writing project actually offered me the opportunity to savor what I love most: Ideas. Synthesis. Epiphanies. I could have started in August with my awkward first draft, then let it marinate and return to it in September, knowing that Draft 2.0 is where I start cooking creatively. And so on, steadily to the deadline.
I could have enjoyed the process instead of obsessing aloud to my family and torturing my best friend and business partner, Suzanne, forcing everyone to join my pathetic odyssey and last-minute fire drill. For months I leaked huge reserves of energy until all I had left was a few blasts of angry, anxious adrenalin. Which I spent in the frenzied final days, working from sun-up to midnight and beyond, smoking cigarettes (!?), and acting like a college student during finals. (Not a pretty sight, three decades after the fact).
Let me be an object lesson to you. Don’t let your winter get sucked away by the easy but unimportant stuff. Instead, shape this season as your commitment to what really matters – personal and professional – while taking the first steps toward what you want in life.
Devote the beginning of each day to the hard stuff. Don’t jump on email as your default first move. In other words, get out of busy avoidance mode.
Ask yourself:
What on my list really matters most? Every day. What needs attention, planning, practice and bold moves – on your personal or professional horizons? Do that for twenty minutes or an hour. Invest first in what matters and feel the boost of energy that carries you through the rest of the day.
If you want help, tell us: What are you putting off that could change your life? What matters most to you?
- posted by Rachel
So true, I am going to take this to heart! Why is it that the things we love to do sometimes turn into the things we “have” to do, and then we keep putting them off?
That’s such a great way of putting it (through procrastination, what we love to do becomes what we have to do). That is PRECISELY the problem with procrastination. It robs US of our own joy. So glad it resonated with you. I hope that tomorrow morning you’ll begin with the hardest thing on your plate. First. Don’t check email. Good luck and thanks for writing! -Rachel