Comments on: Procrastination and the Freelancer

By: Amie

Amie — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 03:33:48 +0000

I'm a horrible procrastinator if it's something I don't want to do, like folding or putting away laundry. I know it will be so much easier to just do it load by load, but I put it off until I have piles upon piles and it takes me hours to complete what would have taken 15 minutes…

By: Lori

Lori — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:07:48 +0000

LOL! Joseph, you're in a lot of good company. :)

Paula, guess who has to interview someone next week? (My hand is up.) Wish me luck. :)

By: Joseph Hayes

Joseph Hayes — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:51:47 +0000

That's me! I do it all the time, particularly magazine work. I'll take a two week lead time and pare it down to three hours, flip frantically through my notes (which were hand-written two weeks ago, so god knows what this scribble means!) and crank out a 700-word piece with seconds to spare ("If I can't write 700 words in three hours I don't deserve to do this job," I somehow rationalize. "Where's my chocolate!?!") I had a rehearsal for a play reading on a Sunday night, with the reading on Monday. When did I finish the script? Sunday afternoon.

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:56:22 +0000

When another writer friend and I discussed this several years ago I realized I work best with 2 week deadlines. Give me a month and I'll dilly dally around the writing (and interviewing). My friend traced her procrastination to college when she'd stay up all night knocking out a story for her creative writing class.

We realized people like us need that adrenaline rush to really ignite the creative flame. The only times I've come close to writer's block (knock on wood) is when there wasn't a deadline looming.

This month I've been working on one short article and a few smaller projects (including the Santa letters, which are long since done), and I'm trying to get more ideas sent out before taking the rest of the year off. I turned down two articles from the same client(both due by year's end) for two reasons: 1) They haven't yet paid me for work published in November and December; 2) I didn't want to do 15-20 interviews on top of my holiday commitments. It's the worst time of year for scheduling interviews, and one of the articles would have been on the floral industry. Ha!

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:35:51 +0000

They're great, Jake! I didn't realize until I heard a few people saying it.

That's pretty verbose for a post-game press conference. Usually, it's more like "Well, we knew going in it would be tough to beat these guys, but we brought our game." Or "They played a better game, what can I say?"

We need to be writing these comments for them. A new market, perhaps? LOL

By: Jake P

Jake P — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:44:41 +0000

Guilty as charged. The Deadline is my crucible. Always been that way, don't suspect it's going to change. But I make it work, and I've learned not to waste a lot of mental energy on berating myself about it. At the risk of sounding like a professional athlete in a post-game press conference, "It is what it is."

By the way, I was so happy to see you were listening to Great Big Sea yesterday. Love those guys!

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:19:48 +0000

"I'm not dreamin', or stupid, I think I been hit by cupid..."

Go get 'em, Ashley. :)

Sounds to me like it's time to look for different projects, Gabriella. Maybe a new area altogether? And that's part of my issue - I have two personal projects about to hit prime time, and they're going to take me in a new, more exciting direction. The regular stuff just isn't cutting it now.

Cathy, Devon often says it - put your own writing FIRST in your day. Why not? We can always catch up with client work, even if we spend an hour on ourselves. First 1,000 words of the day are all yours. :)

By: Cathy

Cathy — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:08:51 +0000

Hi. My name is Cathy and I am a procrastinator.

Sometimes I really beat myself up about it. Like Devon, I know there is something more going on that is causing the procrastination.

And, like Ashley, after 30+ years in Corporate and ridiculous work weeks, I am simply not interested in working myself to death. Of course, that doesn't explain why I procrastinate a reasonable workload.

I think what it all boils down to (for me) is I want to write fiction and my procrastination on the "work stuff" blocks me from failing at my dream.

How's that for a shrink-wrapped moment? :-)

By: Gabriella F.

Gabriella F. — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:03:19 +0000

You perfectly described me, Lori! On rare occasions, I'll get a project in early. But most often, I dither until I HAVE to write.

I think I'm a little bored and burned out. So any free time I have away from work, I leap at it. Yet, I can't figure out how to get excited about work again--and I have to do it for many more years, so I'd better find a way!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:01:37 +0000

oh girl, I can get down on some Shania Twain 🙂