You’ve just been given a writing assignment on a specific topic about which you know virtually nothing and about which you have even less interest. You have six weeks to write a 3,000-4,000 word article. The deadline is non-negotiable and the cost of not completing a quality piece of writing on time is totally unacceptable to you. In this situation, what is the first thing you would do when it’s time to work on it?
Obviously there is research to be done and either a mind map or an outline to create before you can actually start writing the piece. Let’s say that you accurately estimate the time it would take to do all the steps including writing and editing. Taking into account everything else you have to get done, you have about two weeks of leeway time. You’ve written articles before but they were much shorter and you got to pick the topic.
You’ve usually tackled your assignments as soon as possible and completed them well ahead of time because you hate feeling pressured. This time it’s different; you feel overwhelmed, anxious and insecure. The temptation to procrastinate seems almost beyond your ability to resist but the consequences are scarier than the assignment itself. [It looked like you were telling me to put the next sentence (Here are some options…} as a new paragraph so I put the sentence “How will you manage…” at the end of this paragraph. It didn’t make sense to leave it as a single-sentence paragraph. What do you think?]
How will your manage your time on this?
Option 1: You get started right away.
Starting with a brainstorm session on the topic, including all the unanswered questions, you then immediately get started on the research, writing and editing so that you’re finished about two weeks ahead of time. [I decided to put these first two bullet points together since they are really two parts of the same option.] You complete your brainstorm and do some research before putting the project aside for a few days to a week while you do unrelated things. Following this well-deserved break, you review your brainstorm, complete the research and draft an outline. At this point you take a few days break to clear and refresh your mind before writing the first draft. After letting the draft sit for a couple of days, you do what editing and re-writing necessary to complete the piece.
Option 2: You panic and procrastinate.
Surrendering to insecurity, you binge on cookies, video games or Netflix, anything to distract yourself from the build-up of stress you’re experiencing. Every night, you promise yourself that you’ll start the next day, but you don’t. The pressure increases, the guilt for putting this off is like a lead soccer ball lodged in your chest and the anxiety becomes excruciating. Finally, you plunge in, pushing your limits further than ever before to pull this off. You complete it an hour before the deadline. You’re exhausted, angry at yourself, and maybe even physically sick. You’re so disappointed in yourself because you know what you’ve written is nowhere near the quality that you’re capable of. You desperately hope the quality is sufficient to avert disaster.
All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination.
Procrastination As A Virtue For Creativity, Why It’s False byTimothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D..
The first option includes a couple of “strategic” or “planned” delays but they don’t fit the definition of procrastination. The result would be a quality piece of writing produced with only a healthy level of stress.
You know what you ought to do and you’re not able to bring yourself to do it. It’s that gap between intention and action.
How to Stop Procrastinating: 4 Tips to Help You Focus on Your Work By Timothy Pychyl Ph.D.
There are things we know we should do or which we must do, but we either delay them or don’t do them at all. When it comes to something creative, perfection is usually what drives us to play video games, binge on Netflix or hang out on Facebook or Instagram for hours on end. Then we castigate ourselves for not doing any work and worry about how little time is left to do it. If it’s not perfection, maybe we just feel inadequate or ill-equipped to complete it. Asking for help is not lame or pathetic. It does take a pinch or maybe a bucketload of humility.
Some things on our mental or written to-do list are much more important than others. It is our action, or our refusal to act that says how worthwhile any task really is. We make time for what really matters. The problem is that what will benefit us the most is not what we give the most weight and importance to by acting promptly.
The future self becomes the beast of burden for procrastination,” says Sirois. “We’re trying to regulate our current mood and thinking our future self will be in a better state. [It is “they” in the quote.] They’ll be better able to handle feelings of insecurity or frustration with the task. That somehow we’ll develop these miraculous coping skills to deal with these emotions that we just can’t deal with right now.
An Open Letter to My Fellow Procrastinators
In the second option, the cost of not getting the really important task done sooner rather than later doesn’t make the necessary impact on us. This is usually because we feel virtually no connection to our “future self” who is going to suffer a lot by not working on it until it’s almost too late to get it completed, and definitely too late to get it done well. In this scenario, your “present self” at the time you receive the assignment feels little connection with your intensely stressed and suffering “future self” five weeks later.
Katrin Klingsieck of the University of Paderborn in Germany suggests that there is a difference between procrastinating and what she calls “strategic delay.” In both cases, you can make a choice to put off completing an important task but, for procrastinators, the delay is usually unnecessary and irrational (not to mention harmful at times). For procrastinators, however, it often means knowing that delaying an important task has negative consequences but still putting it off despite intense feelings of guilt and anxiety
Reflection:
- Have you used either of the first two options above when faced with a large and important creative assignment? Were you satisfied with the result?
- Have you had a bad experience with procrastination? What did it cost you?
- What things are you most likely to put off doing? What do these things have in common, if anything?
Sources:
Kit’s Kontemplations 