I’ll do that tomorrow, yet tomorrow never comes

We have become a procrasti-nation. But the solution is ridiculously easy.

The freelance life is always one of feast and famine, especially during times of economic instability. Feasting when you have not just a lot of projects, but projects that you fall in love with and everything else goes by the wayside. Famine so dark that you start to doubt yourself and your mojo seems to be sneaking away in the dark, abandoning you just when you need it most.

During times of feast, with my brain firing 24/7 I find myself scribbling down ideas for posts, books, projects and yet during times of famine I’m too focused on finding feast again to sit down and make good on my lists of things to do. It’s a balancing act that I have yet to master, although getting better at it all of the time.

Now, to my list. My list is made up of random ideas that come to me when I’m being an artist or watching the Antique Road Show (the power of imperfection); things that get my goat like all of the #metoo folks going to the Met Gala celebrating a known misogynist, racist homophobe and all around ass. (And quite frankly the Met Gala in general as I find it annoyingly dull creative-wise.); things that I’m intrigued by like Web3/Metaverse/AI. Things that I’ve already accomplished, but I write them down anyway, just so I can cross something off…(yes, it is incredibly satisfying thank you very much!).There are also about 10 things that would only be interesting if I wrote about them at the time…what a waste.

Now the good(?) news is that I’m not alone in my ability to procrastinate. Studies have shown that procrastination has risen exponentially over the last 30 years, in fact is has more than quadrupled. We’ve also seen a widening impact of our ability to procrastinate—from relationships to money. Indeed, procrastination statistics suggest that 40% of us have experienced financial loss due to procrastination (Gura, 2008). and that 46% says that it has impacted our happiness ‘quite a bit or very much’. And of course, the trickle down effect from all of this is a deeper impact on our health stemming from the stress and anxiety of procrastination.

So, as I was reading about procrastination, (ironically while putting off some other work) I found there were four types of procrastinators, somewhat delineated by their approach to life overall:

• The Super-Optimist might say that all of the options looks good and they don’t know where to start because of it.
• The Chaos-Thriver would say that they get off on the stress and chaos of putting things off—also heightening the sense of dramatic heroic-ness when they do finally get it done.
• The Pleasure Seeker justifies everything by saying that life’s too short, and living for the moment is much more important
• The Perfectionist may say that it’s just safer not to stick your neck out—If I don’t do it, I won’t get it wrong.

There is a lot of psychology behind these four and I must say, when I took a little quiz ages ago that identified me at a Chaos-Thriver, it was spot on and linked very much to my “Queen Fix it” family role, blah, blah, blah. I’m not being dismissive, just no need to get into all that.

But…what if it there were one easy to kick the procrastination habit—no matter which type of procrastinator you are? Well, there is. And all it takes is 5 minutes. Literally, what I’ve found after years o books and apps and courses is the 5-minute rule. Essentially, all you need to do is commit to spending just five minutes on whatever it is you’re procrastinating, after which you’re free to stop if you want. Right now I’m finding that 75% of the time, I actually spend 30-45 minutes on projects once I’d committed to the 5 minutes. And, if you find yourself unable to move beyond the 5 minutes, that’s it. No recriminations or beating yourself up.

Now, this isn’t going to change the world, but I have to say it’s changed my life. And I’m not being hysterical about it. Less stress, less guilt, more time. More time for feast-finding. Yummy all the way around.