How I struggle with starting
I started this blog in March last year because I wanted to write. You see, I have a bit of a procrastination problem and I thought that having a regular deadline would help with this. I’m not sure if you also have a procrastination problem but even if you don’t I’m sure you can see the irony in that sentiment. Well, I’m pleased to report that out of the past 43 weeks I’ve only missed one post (that was some really nasty food poisoning on holiday) and the satisfaction of knowing I can manage to keep on top of this corner of the internet gives me hope that one day I might win in my struggles to get stuff done.
I have a notebook where I jot down ideas for the blog. Sometimes they appear out of nowhere, or are inspired by books I’m reading, but usually they come out of something I’m dealing with in my own creative practice or business. With so many ideas in the notebook you’d think that it would be easy writing these posts… but no. Most weeks, despite the deadline always being Wednesday, I find myself in a mild state of panic (usually on the Tuesday) about what to write. There have been the odd perfect moments where the posts have written themselves, as the topic was so close to me that it just needed to emerge. But mostly I have to drag them out. I have tried micro-managing the blog post writing, scheduling it for the week before to get ahead of myself, and I’ve even tried binge-writing so that I have some posts banked. But generally these instances are few and far between. Things quickly return to the status quo of the last minute.
I’m sharing this with you because I think it helps to hear that other people struggle too. I may offer advice or point people in the direction of things that may help them, but I’m not without my own issues and challenges. I was intending to write this week’s post, in this last week of January, about goal setting and keeping motivated – a way to round up the start of the year. But, if you don’t actually get going then none of those things really matter. So, here are some thoughts and pointers for people who, like me, find themselves putting things off, dodging certain tasks, getting anxious or worried about the things you never quite manage to do.