A = Action

This post is the first article on A=Action, take action on your ideas, in the CREATIVE HABITS series. Today, I’ll be pondering on something that happens to us all at some time.

Procrastination. Dithering.. Avoiding.. Umming and Ahhing… Going around in circles…

It’s time to take action to avoid procrastination!

As infopreneurs we become very good at finding ways of procrastinating, especially when the deadline seems far away and you think you have plenty of time. However, serious infopreneurs will know that taking action is far better than finding ways of convincing yourself that it’s ok to put off the task.

Here are three ways you can encourage yourself to take action and start writing. Avoid the excuses you make to yourself and start writing today.

1 – Change The Deadline

The word deadline comes from the medical world where the heart machine will show a single line when the heart stops, instead of the peaks of heartbeats. When you have a deadline, that is the amount of time you have until the work is no longer valid and becomes useless or ‘dead’.

Journalists, in particular, work to tight deadlines and if they are unable to meet the deadline, someone else’s story will be used to fill the gap in the newspaper.

If you have a long project to write with a long-term deadline, set yourself some smaller goals and mini-deadlines. Take these deadlines as seriously. Set a goal a day or for every week, so that you can continue the writing.

Meeting a deadline, even if it is self-imposed, gives you the encouragement to keep going, and ensures the project is completed on time for the client.

If you set yourself deadlines each day, with tasks you want to achieve by the end of that day, you stop procrastination by putting the pressure on to complete the task that day.

2 – Break the WheelSpin

Whenever you find your mind going around in circles, find ways of stopping the ‘wheelspin’. This is a real time waster and many writers will use this as an excuse to continue procrastination and putting off the writing. Instead of sitting staring at the computer and wondering what to write, take definite action.

You may like to start by typing some key phrases on the page, in the paragraphs spaces you were about to write. This gives you a structure for your writing and helps to break the “oh no, where do I start” syndrome.

If you are stuck on a particular paragraph, and can’t find the exact right words for it, leave it and go on to the next one. You can always come back to the first paragraph later.

In fact, it is often easier to start writing in the middle, and complete the introduction at the end. Start to write, wherever you need to, to take action and stop the mind going around in circles. Often when you come back to the part you were stuck on, after a break and writing something else, you find the words flow again.

3 – Timeline The Tasks

At the start of each day, when you have decided on the deadlines you are going to meet, break up the tasks required to meet the deadlines. Plan your day so that each hour has its own task to be completed. You may like to consider planning specific breaks, including exercise, eating and housework mental breaks to keep the writing fresh. However, plan to give yourself a separate task for most hours.

As you complete each ‘task’ tick it off on the to do list. This gives you a feeling of accomplishment and encourages you to keep going. Giving yourself hourly tasks, such as writing two or three pages, structuring a chapter or brainstorming and researching for the next chapter, book, article, whatever, will help you to keep your focus and stop procrastinating. Give yourself a variety of tasks to do each day, so that boredom does not take over and allow further procrastination.

Basically, this gives you several mini-deadlines each day, and enables you to feel like you are achieving something when you tick off the task for the hour.

Keep a timer near you, and set an alarm for every hour. This is a great motivator and helps to stop procrastination. Even if you procrastinate for the first few minutes of the hour, very soon, the timer will remind you to get back into it and take action.

Don’t let the beast of procrastination take over your writing time. Your time is precious and you don’t want to waste it. Setting deadlines, taking action to break the wheelspin, and giving yourself specific times to complete certain tasks will help you to write more productively.

What do you do to try and avoid or break the procrastination cycle? Let us know what works for you.