Do you ever wonder whether writing is easier for others?
You see people publishing new blog posts every week. Others even publish a whole new book every year.
And it seems like they write without agony, without stress, without procrastinating.
But here’s the truth …
We only see the end result of other people’s writing.
We see their finished pieces but we don’t see their resistance to writing.
We don’t notice the despair about a crappy first draft. We don’t see the huge effort of restructuring and revising and editing until the writing flows naturally and the ideas are finally communicated with clarity and flair.
If you’re a procrastinator, you’re not alone.
You’re not the only one who finds writing a challenge, who wrestles to get your ideas on paper.
When I quit my job, I didn’t plan to become a writer
Writing was a way to raise my profile and start my business.
As I quit my 70-hour-per-week job, working at home was a challenge.
The days stretched out before me, and often, it’d take a whole day of umming and ahhing, reading newspapers, and brewing cups of tea, before I’d finally start writing—usually late afternoon, when deadlines put pressure on me.
Why was I procrastinating so much?
I used to think I lacked discipline or willpower.
But I’ve since learned that willpower is a fallacy. Research suggests that telling ourselves we lack willpower is enough to make us do less.
Much smarter than relying on willpower is to create the habits that make it easy to start (and keep) writing.
We don’t procrastinate because we’re lazy
We procrastinate because the tasks in front of us feel too hard, too daunting, or too boring.
We feel a resistance to getting started and allow ourselves to get distracted by more pleasurable activities, such as watching cat videos, scrolling Instagram, or doing simple tasks like answering emails.
What do you do when you procrastinate?
And how does that activity make you feel?
Breaking procrastination habits may feel like an impossible task.
But it’s possible.
How I stopped procrastinating
Turning myself from a procrastination champion into a more productive writer has had a big impact on me.
I’ve mostly eliminated stress because I don’t need a deadline to write. I feel less frustrated with myself. Above all, writing gives me more joy. It’s still hard at times—of course it is, writing is thinking, and thinking is not easy. But I can even find joy in the hard work.
How did I do it?
There are 3 parallel tracks to defeat procrastination:
- Make it easier to start writing
- Avoid mid-writing procrastination
- Face your feelings rather than flee them
Shall I explain?
1. Practice getting started
To start writing was always a challenge for me.
There were so many doubts.
Was my idea good enough? Could I actually turn my idea into a solid blog post? Who was I thinking that I could write about this?
The key trick was to make starting easier by cutting the writing process up in smaller tasks, like outlining, writing a first draft, revision, editing, formatting.
I told myself I only needed to take the next step, and then I could leave the rest for tomorrow. But once I took a first little step, I often got in a flow, and would write a lot more.
I often get emails from people who struggle to get their thoughts on paper, and they wonder why it is so hard.
Well, getting your thoughts down on paper is hard, and the trick is to get started, to accept that your first draft will be bad, and then improve that draft until you communicate your ideas with clarity.
If you want to become a more productive writer, I recommend falling in love with the step-by-step process of writing. When you focus on each step of the process rather than worry about the result, you’ll find joy in writing—even when it’s hard.
And fostering that joy will help overcome procrastination.
2. Avoid mid-writing distractions
Getting started with writing eliminates a lot of procrastination.
But there’s another trap ….
Mid-writing procrastination.
I often hit a block in the writing process. I miss a piece of research, an example, or a quote. Or I find that my structure doesn’t work. Or I need to start a new section and I don’t know how to continue.
In such a situation, it’s easy to give up writing and do something else. But before I’d know, an hour or two would have passed answering emails, reading newspapers, or scrolling through Twitter. Getting back to writing would be hard.
How can we keep writing when we hit a block?
First, I adopted the Pomodoro technique—to set a timer and write for short bursts of time. While the timer is ticking, I’m not allowed to do anything else but write.
Secondly, I learned to observe my procrastination behavior:
- When did I get distracted from my writing?
- What were my procrastination activities?
- How did those activities really make me feel?
- What could I do to keep writing instead?
Jud Brewer is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who helps people change bad habits, and he writes that our guilty habits often don’t give us as much pleasure as we think. Just realizing this can help us to replace a bad habit with a healthier or more productive habit.
Resisting bad habits is hard; it’s much easier to replace a bad habit with a new habit. So, instead of letting a writing block trigger a bout of procrastination, I find tactics to keep writing.
For instance, when I feel stuck writing a first draft, I reread what I’ve written so far. Rereading often helps me to continue writing. But if not, I start editing or summarizing what I’ve written so far.
When you gain an intimate understanding of the writing process and the blocks along the way, you can find tactics to avoid procrastination and keep writing.
That’s how writing becomes a more joyful activity.
3. Face your inner monsters
My natural instinct has always been to run away from my emotions, to fight my fears, and ignore my doubts.
I used to make myself busy so I didn’t have to think.
But I only let my fears and doubts grow, and I made difficult tasks like writing become even harder.
I’ve learned to pay more attention to myself. I observed my emotions and thoughts, and I noticed how much I was getting in my own way.
I learned to co-exist with my doubts, to get started despite my resistance, and over time the doubts became less forceful. I could laugh at my resistance. I understood that writing was sometimes hard but that with patience and perseverance, I would find a way.
Acknowledging my feelings saved me a lot of precious energy, and helped me become a writer despite my doubts or fears.
As psychologist Dr. Christian Jarrett suggests, procrastination isn’t a matter of managing your time better, it’s a matter of managing your emotions.
Your illustrated guide to stop procrastinating …
Grab the embed code below to display the infographic on your website:
Want to stop procrastinating this year?
Write It, Don’t Fight It is a step-by-step course that helps you become a prolific and joyful writer
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Further reading on the procrastination:
The magic of shitty first drafts
An introduction to the writing process
How to build a Hemingway bridge (and keep writing momentum)
Loved this article, Henneke! I too recently adopted the Pomodoro technique, and now I am a believer. I am really digging your stuff.
Thank you, Ayman. I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog. Happy writing!
Haha i’m actually working towards becoming a better writer. I am done procrastinating, thanks for the post Henneke
Great. Happy writing, Danny!
Procrastination is lack of self-control: James Clear
Let’s break our mind into two identities – true self and false self. True self is focused on taking action, while false self is about stuckness (sticking with old thinking patterns.)
Taking action in present moment is often more painful, uncomfortable and tempting to escape the actions. That’s why our false self most often beat true self easily.
Here you wonderfully show us how to immune to distractions, the strategies to starting and doing the work. Plus, how to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
I’m grateful to you Henneke.
These days we hear a lot about the need for creating viral content. I myself have faced this pressure of creating viral topics and this is where my creativity stops and procrastinating begins. I keep thinking, thinking and postponing my writing. Long-form content is the need now and if the content doesn’t get views, it seems that the whole effort has gone down the drain. I am still facing this problem. Your article has brought a bit of positivity. Joyful writing is now a dream at times. But your article did bring a smile in me – I related to it somehow 🙂 Thank you Henneke
Perhaps you’re setting the bar a little too high for yourself? Not all content can go viral, and not all content needs to go viral. A steady amount of traffic can work as well as a sudden burst of viral traffic. My blog posts here on Enchanting Marketing have rarely gone viral but they’re still serving my audience and still generating traffic, new email subscribers, and ultimately new buyers for my books and courses. Steady can get you quite far, too.
You may also want to consider a small writing project for yourself where you can write what you like. It doesn’t need to take up a lot of time but can help you rediscover the joy of writing.
I love this, Henneke. 🙂
This past year with lockdown and political insanity in the U.S., I’ve really been diving deep into the mechanisms of procrastination, and how to disable them.
I find Dancing with Monsters is such an important one — often the hardest to grasp, but really worth the effort.
Always good to read a post from you. 🙂
Thank you, Sonia 🙂
I agree with you. Learning to dance with our monsters is key, it has the biggest impact—not just on writing productivity (& joy!) but on life in general. Everything we learn to make writing more joyful, applies to so many things in life, too.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting! 🙂
Hi Henneke,
Facing the inner monsters – fear in your mind – feels uncomfortable but dissolves the procrastination habit. Totally feels rough sometimes; I hate facing deeper fears as we all do. But we see delaying is a way to avoid facing fears we have to feel, when we cease delaying. Power tips here.
Ryan
Yep. When we learn to be okay with being uncomfortable, then it becomes easier to get started and the fears lose their power (even if they’re still there).
Oh wow, I absolutely love the infographic that you’ve added to the article! I feel that my biggest downfall, when writing for my blog, is number 2 – distractions. I’m on a roll and suddenly I get distracted and don’t get back to writing for quite some time.
I’m now trying to isolate myself and turn off social media as well as my phone. These were the biggest distractions for me.
Yes, turning off external distractions can make a big difference. For me, it’s always more myself who distracts me — my own thoughts & feelings.
I’m glad you enjoyed the infographic!
I’m SO glad I stumbled onto this! Lately, there seems to be a lot of that…all good things that’ve helped enlighten and encourage. As a fledgling freelance writer who’s not quite started yet, this is great advice – I was actually struggling to get started on my next task when I found this 🙂 Trying to start a new career later in life, passion though it may be, can be tough. I need to keep the day job long enough to pay the bills until the writing gets going, but the day job takes up 40+ hours a week I’d rather spend writing. Thank you for your excellent wisdom.
I’ve been there, too. I know it’s tough. But I’ve never regretted my decision to change careers and quit my corporate job in my early 40s. It’s so much better to be my own boss, to get rid of office politics, to have the freedom to make my own decisions.
Addressing procrastination is “a matter of managing your emotions.” Excellent quote that cuts to heart of the matter. Some say about meditation that one should treat there errant thoughts like small children and try to gently redirect them. Seems similar to what you are saying about one dealing with their doubts. Excellent article.
Yes, I agree with you, it’s very similar. I sometimes think of overcoming my doubts as coaxing my inner child to do something she’s fearful of. Fighting my inner child or ignoring her doesn’t work, but I can gently coax her to do the work she’s resisting. Thank you for stopping by, Al. I appreciate it.
Such a detailed and thorough explanation makes me want to apply it right away! Not only for writing, but for any other tasks that I need to do, but I seem not to find the desire or feel too overwhelmed to start. Thank you so much!!!
Yes, that’s so true. I use the same principle for other tasks, too. Always defining the smallest first step to get started. What also helps me is to stop telling myself “I should do this” (it increases my resistance), so instead I tell myself “I want to do this and I can start with a specific small step.”
Actually, I have never ever met a writer who said writing is fun. I have also never met a musician who said studying is fun. Or a ballet danser. It is hard work, and it will always be hard. So even big name authors only write for a couple of hours a day and then reward themselves with a glass of whisky or whatever they get off on.
They have learned to keep at it. Day after day after day, for a few hours. And in order to not procrastine they often work first thing in the morning, so they cannot escape.
It is probably still less painful to them than work in a factory 😉
Writing is not fun. I agree. Fun is easy and rather superficial. Joy is different from fun. Joy is closer to the concept of flow, it’s more about being present no matter whether things are easy or hard, whether you feel happy or sad. Charlotte Joko Beck suggests “joy is being willing for things to be as they are.” That feels very apt for the writing process.
Mason Currey describes the writing routines of creative people including quite a few writers in his book “Daily Rituals,” and I remember various writers writing later in the day, even at nighttime. While some can only write later in the day because of work commitments, our biorhythms also vary so while some write better in the morning, others write better in the afternoon or evening. I’ve also come across people who can write their first drafts best early in the morning and prefer editing late afternoon, and others who are the exact opposite. So, it seems to depend on biorhythm and writing process, and it may require some experimentation to find the best time to write.
It is not joy, either. It is hard work 😉
Wow, I bet you had fun writing this post. I needed to hear this today. I especially liked the quote about writing Madame Bovary in 2 pages a week. Thanks for the tips.
You’re right—it was a lot of fun, especially the drawing for this post. I also love the quote about Madam Bovary; I use it as a reminder to keep going and to write consistently, even if it’s only a little a day.
Thank you for stopping by, Sue!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Henneke. As always very original drawings and a really helpful article.
Thank you, Nardi. I am glad you found it helpful. 🙂
Hello Henneke,
I’m a procrastination champion from my school days. I start studying for exams the day before. I feel guilty about it, but it just happen without my knowledge and I reach the deadline when there’s too much pressure.
I blame myself for less determination, willpower and poor time management skills. However, it doesn’t make any sense.
I feel writing too difficult. Last time I started writing on a complete new niche. After lots of self-doubt and thinking of perfectionism, I procrastinate to start which is the most difficult part.
Then I started writing anyway for 2-3 days and reached around 1000 words, yet not completed.
I run out of ideas. I haven’t research more on the topic and lost between the writing process.
And this event actually make me feel more guilty and I’m now thinking that I don’t have a good grammar skills or even I can’t write on a new niche as I’m not an expert. All negetive thoughts.
I write on my journal everyday, that won’t make me feel in the same way when I write on my laptop.
But today I understood what should I do to keep writing and not giving up.
It’s hard but keeping a track will definitely help.
Thank you so much Henneke and Henrietta.
Btw, I have a question.
How to research on a topic if you are a complete beginner to that niche? Is it okay to take more time?
(I emerge in the research process that I get another chance to procrastinate and now I’m feeling the research more daunting than that of writing).
I already saved the infographic for future reference. 😉
Warm regards,
Barsha
Hello Barsha,
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your story.
Yes, it’ll take more time if you’re a complete beginner in a niche. When I started blogging about writing, I was new to writing, too, and it took me a long time to write a blog post. My very first blog post on writing was almost like a summary of 6 books I had read, sharing the most valuable insights I had learned. If I remember correctly, it almost took me 6 months to write that first post. But I had learned a lot, and from then on it became easier. In a way, I just shared what I was learning. What I found most useful is to complement my online research with books.
It’s good to follow your curiosity and write about what interests you, even if the research takes longer. It’s great if you have time for that. You’ll learn new things, and it’ll enrich your life.
Great article, found it very interesting and informative, once practice these steps one should be successful.
Yes, it’s the practice that makes it work!
No doubt you´re my favorite writing teacher!! Your lessons/articles always hit the target!! Thanks!!!
Please tell me something…I noticed that it takes me up to 1 week the whole process of writing an article for my blog (from the idea to the final piece)…maybe I need more practice, but if I plan to publish a new article every week, how can I do it?? how does everyone do it??… For sure that is one of the reasons why I procrastinate; I´m feeling unable to reach my own deadlines…
I actually think it’s a good idea to spread the writing over more days. It allows you to take advantage of percolation, and you’ll get better ideas and spend less time on writing one piece. In case you may find it useful, I wrote about a 5-day plan for writing here: https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/blogging-schedule/
It’s definitely true that practice helps make writing faster. What also helps is to follow a “template”—to structure your blog posts in similar ways.
There are many different ways to speed up the writing process and it helps to reflect first on where you spent most time—is it research? Writing a first draft? Revision and editing? Depending on what takes longest, you can find tactics to speed up. If research takes long, try to write more about things you know or narrow down the question your blog post should answer so the research goes faster. If you take a lot of time writing a first draft, try using a timer to speed up the process and make friends with your inner critic. If it’s revision, then perhaps it might help to outline first so the structure of the first draft is better and less revision is necessary. If you take a lot of time editing, then ask yourself whether you’re being a perfectionist. How much difference do the edits really make? Are you delaying the moment of clicking “publish?”
Above are just some examples. Depending on what’s slowing you down, there are many tactics to speed up. And experience will help a lot, too!
You also may want to consider publishing every other week rather than weekly.
You understand.
I worked hard at understanding it 🙂
Next, you should open a course on drawing 🙂
Writing is so common.
I volunteer to beta test it.
A drawing is worth a 1000 words, Here you have 10 000 words in a single day.
Ha! Who knows.
I feel hesitant. Teach how to draw doesn’t feel like my thing. Better to stick to teaching how to write.
I’m happy to recommend the Da Vinci cartooning course to anyone who want to learn how to draw (that’s the course I originally took to learn how to draw–I’ve complemented it with various smaller courses and books).
A positive and engaging look at the dreaded “P”. Thank you Henneke. A new way to think and feel about it…
Thank you, Janice. I hope it helps you!
Awesome distillation of wisdom!
Thank you, Michael!
You’ve done it again, Henneke. Thanks for sharing three actionable ideas to thwart procrastination. May I add another? Pin a copy of this article near your writing station. When hesitation creeps in refer to one of the steps to get words flowing again.
Thank you for your compliment, Pierrette. And how lovely to see your photo pop up here again. I hope you’re keeping well and safe. 💜
I love the way your thoughts flowed through your writing, Henneke. So insightful and encouraging, with perky drawings that bring life to your suggestions. You’ve perfectly married your words and your images into wonderfully encouraging post. Thank you! 😊
Thank you so much for your compliment, Barry. I still find it a struggle to marry the words & the images, and especially to make the whole “story” work (with so few words). I’m more at ease with writing a blog post but I like the challenge 🙂
Fewest words as poss is “the way” of graphic communication. Once you understand that you are only EVER aiming for a aerial shot without any detail – it’ll all click into place .
There you go Henneke – One stale bread crumb on graphic communication in return for your lavish banquet on using words in a up to date way !
Thankyou, Mike
That’s not a bread crumb. You’re underestimating the value of your advice. Thank you.
Pure GENIUS, as always, Henneke. The monster looks absolutely cuddly and lovable sitting on the block with Henrietta. LOL here. You’re right … we need to make friends with our monsters, disempower them, and see them for what they are … figments of our imagination. Your talents are off the charts, Many thanks.
Thank you for your compliment, Nomi. I enjoyed drawing the monster so much. I was inspired by Lynda Barry’s book on drawing comics. Drawing monsters is one of her recommended exercises. I liked how the monster evolved, becoming more human, perhaps even cuddly?
Thanks! This blog is the gift that keeps giving! Excellent!
Do you have the infographic in a PDF?
I haven’t thought about doing a PDF. I can look into it, but it’d be several pages because the infographic is quite long. Unless I put two columns on a page? I don’t know whether it’d look good.
Madame Bovary: 118,000 words. At the rate of 500 words per week. Wow. Now I feel better. Haha!
I have loved every time you write about procrastination, through the years. I need to up my game, though, instead of loving to read about it. A person can have too much to do, and I’m there, but I wonder if taking on too many “important” projects is a part of procrastination.
I remember reading about how many are disillusioned about the glories of the internet. It used to be said it would save us so much time, but now we realize it really condenses our work to give us more time for more work.
I might be caught in that. They don’t call it “the net” for nothing.
Although if you sell your house and buy a different one, it pretty much necessitates spending a long time shifting your stuff. However, I have only ONE box left to deal with. So there is hope.
Thanks again for prodding me along!
It’s amazing, isn’t it? Just two pages a week, and that’s how he got to 118,000 words. Consistency pays off.
I agree with you on the net. It’s so easy to be fooled in thinking we need to keep up to date with the latest—whether that’s the news or the latest online marketing tricks or the newest social media platform or whatever. I’ve found myself resisting the online world more and more. And yet, here I am still writing my blog and selling online. But I like to do it my way 🙂
Glad that you’ve settled (almost) in your new house. That’s big thing off the to-do list!
Hi Henneke, love this one! Infographics are so fun and tips are applicable as usual! A problem I have is forgetting to finish my writing projects – having lots of unfinished articles I don’t even remember I started. 🤷♀️
And you have become excellent at drawing your little dog. Tell me, has he gained some weight or it’s just me? 😂
I hope you are doing well. All the best. I
I have a rule that I’m not allowed to start a new article until I’ve finished the one I’ve been working on. In the beginning this rule felt quite harsh because it felt sometimes impossible to finish a post but I found that there’s always a way, and it’s usually (always?) quicker to finish a post than to write a new one. I’m slightly less strict with that rule now but mostly still adhere to it.
Thank you for your compliment on the little dog (he’s called Arthur). It comes at a good time as I was just thinking how bad my dog drawing skills are. It’s like I can draw Arthur only two ways—he’s sleeping or wagging his tail. One day, I need to expand my dog drawing skills 🙂 And yes, he might have gained some weight. I’ll tell Henrietta she needs to take him on longer walks. 😂
I hope you’re keeping well and safe, too. Thanks for stopping by again. It’s good to see your name pop up!
That’s a good rule to remember, indeed, and I’ll do my best to implement it. Starting with finishing what I’ve started. 🤔
I think your Arthur is adorable, don’t be hard on yourself. And say hello to Henrietta from me. 😉 Happy to be here, too.
That was great! The artwork was as engaging as the writing. Have you read Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg? His advice dovetails nicely. His remarks about celebrating were super helpful to me and I can see how they would be the crowning touch to everything you wrote. (I’m not affiliated with him. He’s a researcher from Stanford University.)
I haven’t read B.J. Fogg’s book yet (it’s on my reading list) but I’ve read some of his work (or watched his videos?) online. I like his work a lot. I used to do the celebrations, too, like drawing a colorful flower every time I’d met my writing goal of the day. It definitely helps to allow a new habit to embed. Thanks so much for adding that.
Henneke, thank you for sharing. I opened it but I think I will read it tomorrow.
Are you procrastinating, Chris?
JUST what I needed today! Thank you thank you thank you!
You’re welcome. Happy writing!