Are you ready for Christmas or will you be shopping and wrapping at the last minute as usual?
If you procrastinate this time of year, you probably have trouble meeting your writing deadlines year round. And if you’re like most procrastinators, you really would like to change. It would make life less hectic.
But do you have it in you to change? Are you actually capable of or wired to calmly work toward a deadline without the drama? Can you organize your time and your life in order to accommodate a new way of being? I guess it depends on your motivation and what’s in it for you. If calm and peace isn’t your atmosphere of choice, then there may be no hope. If your habitual tardiness is linked to your attempt to be noticed or to gain power, then forget it.
Some writers love the excitement of rushing upon a deadline and finishing it barely under the wire. I have friends who use their bent toward procrastination as a way to get sympathy and other kinds of (often negative) attention. There are people who seem to live their entire lives showing up late. They just can’t (or won’t) get organized. But if you want to do better in 2010—you want to enjoy a more peaceful existence without the constant commotion—you wish to stop disappointing and irritating colleagues, co-workers, friends, family members and editors by always showing up late—here are a few tips and tricks that might help.
• Use lists. If you write it down, you are more apt to follow through. Plus, it frees your mind when your tasks are committed to paper—you’re no longer required to try remembering everything that needs to be done.
• Break big projects into smaller tasks. Rather than look at your assignment as a major project wherein you must research and write a complete article by mid month, view it in segments.
• Plan to finish the assignment early. Forget about the deadline date. Establish your own date and focus on finishing then.
• Make friends with the clock.
When you are planning to meet with an editor or a friend, rather than just letting things happen as they might—which is what you would typically do—thus, showing up late, actually plan a time to arrive. Learn how to use your friend, the clock, to help you change your tardy habits.
Here’s how I mange my time so that I can meet my commitments. Let’s say that I have a 9:30 a.m. meeting and I get up that morning at 7. The drive will take me10 minutes in heavy traffic (I plan for the worst case scenario). That means I must leave the house no later than 9:20. I note what I must and what I’d like to do before for the meeting: shower, dress, straighten up the house, eat a bite of breakfast, feed the cats, make some calls and gather some paperwork for the meeting, for example. I would also like to write my blog, respond to the email that came in overnight and ready some books for shipping. Now, I will give each task a portion of the time I have allotted that morning.
I don’t just start moving through my morning and let things happen as they might. For example, I won’t start making the bed and then pick up a book from the nightstand and start reading it nor will I go out to get the paper and get in a long conversation with a neighbor or get suddenly distracted by a stack of bills I left on the desk the night before.
No, I have a mission. I have an obligation to be on time and there are certain tasks I want to finish before I leave, so this is my focus.
First, I figure my priorities—taking a shower, feeding the cats, getting dressed, eating something, packaging the books to be shipped, responding to important emails and preparing for the meeting (although, I probably would have done that preparation the night before). If I have time left, I might write (or at least start) my blog, straighten the house, make the calls and play with the cat for a few minutes. At any rate, I will be driving out of my driveway, hair combed, lipstick in place, briefcase in hand at 9:20.
Can you see how I prioritize? When there is a particularly tight time crunch, I will allot each priority task a segment of time in writing. For example, I can generally shower, dress and be ready to leave in 20 minutes. It takes me approximately 5 minutes to ready a book to be shipped, 10 minutes to prepare and eat a bowl of cereal and fruit (I can feed the cats while fixing my breakfast). I can generally straighten the house and deal with litter boxes within about 20-30 minutes. And my blog generally takes 30 to 45 minutes to write. Those calls I wanted to make might take me 15 minutes and checking all of my email could delay me by 15 or 20 minutes.
Do you see how when you know how much time you need to spend on each task, you can actually pretty realistically schedule so that you are always on time.
Are you generally prompt or do you struggle with punctuality? Do you easily meet deadlines or are they a real problem for you? I’d like to hear your story and learn your tips and tricks for meeting those all important deadlines.
For more tips, tricks and solid advice, resources and information, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I’m also starting two online courses in January. See my blog post for December 18 for details. http://www.matilijapress.com