Yeah, so procrastination wins.

Procrastination has always been a constant battle with me, and one that I fight every day, if not every hour. Should I do the thing I am meant to, or quickly read that entire trilogy?

There are lots of self-help books, webinars, life coaches, and randoms who have a surefire solution, that will kill it dead, and you will be productive from when you wake up on time and go to bed on time.

I’m not convinced. Never have been, never will be. However, there are a few things that I do that sometimes help. My top three are:

1. To-do lists – Write down what you have to do. That doesn’t mean everything before you die. Nor in such detail, as putting the toothpaste on the brush, brushing your teeth, rinse the toothbrush. Nor is it such vagaries as writing novels, travelling, and earning a PhD. Nor such impossibles as Going to Mars, Solving world hunger, and fixing the environment.
   • Stuff for that day or week
   • Things that are important (Not write list, or do favourite procastination thing)
   • Things in manageable chunks – Brush Teeth, Draft first 200 words of chapter 1
2. The Pomodoro technique. If there is something you really don’t want to do or feel that will take too long, or just seems massive, set a timer for 15 to 25 minutes, and do it for that length of time. You may be done after that first session, but at least you have started it and removed a barrier. OR, and this happens with me, you actually get into it. Be it exercise, cleaning, writing, or whatever. You may stop after that alarm goes off, and realise you were enjoying it, or that you can see the difference you made, or that you’re actually nearly finished.
3. JFDI – Just Flipping do it. If during your day you discover or are given a task that will take around ten minutes, JFDI. UNLESS you are in the middle of another task, If you add it to your list, and then think about it, worry about it, do everything but it, that task avoidance will take a toll. If you do it straight away, it’s a win for you, and whoever else it may impact.

Your mileage may vary, but these things help me. Obviously this last week they haven’t. I’ve read Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky, his brilliant follow up to the fantastic Bear Soldiers. Played a lot of Call of Duty Mobile now that they brought the zombies back, and also watched Interstellar again with a fantastic cast, mind bending plot, and really good visuals.

I did manage t flesh out some ideas on a new fantasy novel, and I did some free writing. That turned into an idea for another sci-fi story, think altered carbon, the Maltese falcon, and Doom.

So the daily / twice weekly updates didn’t happen, but hey, I am only human, probably.