Why do I call it an art? Well, it's certainly a practice that I have perfected over an extended period of time and some of us get very good at it so I would say that's an art form, wouldn't you? It might not be what we generally think of as a creative endeavour but I can get very creative about not creating, how funny is that?
I think the amazing thing about procrastination is how much of my life I witter away by not doing something that I ultimately have to do anyway. That could be another definition of insanity perhaps, what do you think?
For example in the creative studio, there are often many tasks that need doing:
Tidying the studio
Preparing canvasses
Mixing paint
Attending to social media
Taking photographs
Cleaning brushes
And let's not forget creating paintings
So can we help each other out here? Firstly what is the thing that you procrastinate over most and secondly how do you get over that procrastination. One of the things I procrastinate over is sending difficult texts or emails and creating social media posts! I can find so many reasons not to do them, and it seems that, the only reason I eventually end up doing them is because I've run out of time. Of course the problem with this is, the response can then be ill-considered because I've been in a rush to get it done. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot!! Now, what helps? What I noticed was that I did what was easiest to do first and put off until absolutely last, the one I really didn't want to do. By the time I got to it of course there were no further excuses so I did it. The one plus with the strategy was that by the time I got to that last one I actually felt good about having done all the others, so I had some impetus to get that last one done. So perhaps it's a strategy that works for me after all. The real trick would be however, to make that list a lot sooner, which means the list would be a lot shorter and the tasks would get done in a more timely fashion.
"Procrastination is not a human failing to be suffered through, it offers insight into finding the process that catalyzes your creativity." Nancy Hillis
What are your procrastinator slayers?