A 15 Letter Word NOT Equal to Lazy

If you visited Seekerville a few weeks ago, you might have read Missy graciously reposting a piece I did as a guest on Seekerville several years ago. Writers Write
I liked that post. I felt like it was a good introduction. But as I prepared to write my first regular column, I was plagued by a favorite writer’s question – What if?
What if writers don’t write?
The obvious answer to that is, if writers don’t write, then technically they’re not writers.But…
What if… you’re still making up stories in your head, but not getting that time in front of the keyboard (or in a notebook) to get them down.  Again, the obvious answer – technically, you’re not a writer (though in this case you could still claim to be a storyteller).
So, if you’re a writer, if you want to be a writer, why aren’t you writing?
There can be many reasons, some valid, some mere excuses. I should know. I’m a pro with both.
In the interest of fair disclosure, I decided to write about this problem today because I know it inside out and back again. Those valid and invalid reasons? I know them too.
Some of you know that my husband passed away after a brief (3 month) battle with cancer. I had a novella due for a collection right after his death. Somehow, by grace and the blessings of numbness, I finished the story on time. What few people know was that his death came on top of a 2 -3 year very difficult period, and it all began just as I sold my first book to Love Inspired Suspense.
I don’t say this to make excuses for myself. Lots of people write through illness (their own and that of family members or friends). I assume if writing was my job, I would have also. But I have a full time job as a teacher and a part time job as a tutor. There was just not enough mental energy to deal with everything, so writing fell by the wayside. 
My sum total of writing during that period was edits on my LIS, 3 novellas, and lots (and lots and lots) of pages written on future books – but none of them completed.
Not really satisfactory for someone who claims to be a writer. 
There’s a nasty word for it and it’s way more than 4 letters.
The word is - 

P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N





So yes, my first regular Seekerville post is about PROCRASTINATION.
My name is Cate and I am a procrastinator.
Can any of you relate?
According to my research, I’m far from alone.
I decided to do this post about procrastination after I read an interesting article online. According to the article (I’ll link it below), we are not procrastinators because we are lazy.
Did you read that correctly? NOT lazy.
That article sang to me because who wants to be called lazy (even by themselves)?
But you know how when something seems too good to be true, you can be a little suspicious?
I was suspicious about this not lazy thing. Because honestly, when I know I’ve been procrastinating, I feel lazy.
But there was something niggling in my brain. I’d had a conversation with my boss recently about how we were both terrible procrastinators because we had to be feeling the pressure of a deadline to be able to produce anything.

True story: I had to make a 45 minute presentation at an educational workshop last Friday. On Wednesday, he asked me how I was doing with it. I replied. “I’m fine. I haven’t started it yet.” He laughed because he totally understood.

Before you pick your jaw up off the floor (or nod your head in understanding), let me say that I had been THINKING about it. I knew what I wanted to say and I knew which photos and videos I wanted to use. I just hadn’t begun to physically put it all together. Why?
My brain doesn’t work that way.
That may sound like an excuse, but it really isn’t. I have tried for years to be one of those people who does things in advance. I WANT to be one of those virtuous people. It would be ever so much better for my health.

BUT. I. JUST. CAN’T. 

I have tried. I've begun working on things early, but I come up blank. Deadlines clear my brain and allow me to finally focus.

True story:  When I was doing my final edits for Christmas in Hiding, I was stuck. I had known from Day 1 that my editor didn’t love my opening. No matter what I tried to do, I couldn’t come up with a better one.
All my other revisions were due and the deadline was looming. So I sat down and wrote it. And just like that, the pieces fell into place.

The lesson you pick up along the way is that if you wait long enough, it will all work out.

It's an easy lesson, but there is a big problem inherent in this method.
NO DEADLINE = NO PROGRESS

And that's why I wanted to blog about this. I'm tired of the "no progress."

So let's get to the research.

"Essentially, procrastination is the avoidance of work or necessary tasks by focusing on more satisfying activities. It’s easy to chalk procrastination up to a lack of self-motivation, lazy habits or incompetence. But in reality, procrastination is chemical; there’s a science to why we prefer relaxing activities to the required. Procrastination boils down to a battle between the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex."(https://share.upmc.com/2015/07/the-sc...)

Okay, so then why do some people never procrastinate, and some of us do on everything?

The original article that I mentioned has this quote from Fuschia Sirois, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield: 

"...we say that procrastination is essentially irrational," And, she reveals, "people engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of an inability to manage negative moods around a task."

According to Sirois and Tim Pychyl of Ottawa's Carleton University, you might understandably think overcoming procrastination is first concerned with task completion, in reality it's primarily concerned with "the immediate urgency of managing negative moods."

Suddenly, I'm preferring lazy.