Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Procrastination

If anything seems to be a theme this week on the many blogs I've visited, it's procrastination.



Why is that?

I suppose I was procrastinating from writing by visiting so many blogs, reading about procrastination. But was it? I also learn a lot about writing and promotion by reading other author's wisdom. I make new friends and new connections. Is that really procrastination?

Probably not. HOWEVER, if I were to do this to the exclusion of writing, then yes, it would be. Since I've been writing and critiquing a lot this week, I feel safe this isn't pure procrastination.

On the other hand, my daughter-in-law was trying to pull me into playing Farmville and Country Time on Facebook. That is definitely procrastination. She's not a writer but she's a full-time college student, so it's procrastination for her, too.

I went cold turkey on Farm Town several months ago. I was so focused on plowing, planting, and keeping up with my farm, I did very little writing or promoting. It was sort of fun but a real time waster. I couldn't afford it. As a result, I haven't been on Facebook much, either, since then. There are too many games and temptations to trip me up.

There are many many things I procrastinate with. Movies - I love to watch movies. If I do so at home, I multi-task, but I also love to go to the theater and get lost in the big screen. American Idol and The Bachelor. Both shows enthrall me, in particular AI. Twitter. I spend hours on Twitter, not only tweeting but following links to interesting blog posts and recipes. Wii - since I excercise on the Wii I don't know if this can really be considered procrastination. Lunching with friends - I gave up working on my lunch hours long ago. This is my socialization time with my friends at work.

Perhaps many things some people might call procrastinating are good for us. We need to excercise. We need to socialize. We need to connect to other people. We need to keep learning. We need to spend quality time with our families. Sometimes we just need a little down time to regroup and recharge.

As long as we don't go overboard on any one thing or especially on something like Farm Town that gives us no real benefit except perhaps to recharge, we should be good. Balance is the key word to everything in life. Even to eating watermelon which isn't high in calories and is so tasty. Too much of even watermelon isn't good.

What about you? What type of thing is your Achilles Heel? Do you find yourself procrastinating much? How do you bring yourself back to business?

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You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I definitely spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook, but I think I do a pretty good job at balancing what I need to do vs what I want to do. Also, reading is my way of procrastinating. I read when I don't want to face what's in my own world. LOL!

Unknown said...

blogger is definitely my procrastination tool, there are so many wonderful blogs I love to read and very much enjoy... most of it is informational though, so does that count as procrastination? Yeah I didn't think so, lol.

I'm with you on movies... and TV, The Bachelor and the latest scandals are always something I live for, and AI is also very entertaining, but I am also a Criminal Minds junky... can't get enough of it!

Unknown said...

We're human and have to have some down time. I feel that visiting other blogs is a combination of socializing, connecting to our industry, and learning new things about our craft and industry.

Reading isn't procrastination. It's necessary to help us improve our craft as well as being a really good way to reenergize ourselves.

I do need to learn a better balance as I could spend all my time blogging and tweeting. That said, I need to do some writing today. I have a story I'm close to finishing and hope to do so this week.

Nicole McCaffrey said...

IMing is my downfall. Some friends I just don't get to talk to except on IM, so when I see one of them pop up online, I can't help myself.

Reading blogs is another way I procrastinate, as well as baking. But I agree, we all need our down time!

Unknown said...

I ended up spending all my time today blogging, tweeting, critiquing and reading. I have to have to have to write tomorow night and this weekend. I'll have to make myself write before I sign online to do anything else.

Molly Daniels said...

Right now it's L&O reruns, lol:)

The Bumbles said...

I don't think whether something has inherent value excludes it from being a procrastination tool. Procrastination is avoiding or putting off doing something that you need to do. You can rationalize productive procrastination, but the bottom line is, whether that other thing you were doing served a purpose or provided a benefit or not, you still didn't do the task you needed to do.

I'm am the world's worst procrastinator. Here I am, commenting on your interesting post, networking, learning, and doing everything within my power to avoid doing the only thing that I am supposed to and need to do right now - the work on my desk.

I never feel my visits to your blog are wasteful of my time. But for the moment, I am procrastinating - avoiding those countless to do items that I get paid to do. So off I go. Sucking it up and knowing that I will feel better for it later if I just get 'er done now.

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