I’ve been a procrastinator pretty much as long as I can remember, but it’s only in the last few years that I’ve really tried to do something about it. All through school I managed to hand my assignments in on time, and sometimes projects at work would take me longer than they should, but they always got done, eventually. But when I decided to re-dedicate myself to my writing, I quickly realized that I would have to deal with my procrastination or I would never finish my work-in-progress. There are no external deadlines, no teachers or bosses standing with their arms crossed, tapping their foot impatiently. Yes, I’ve told people that I’m writing, and I’ve even told them that I plan to have a rough draft done by the end of the year, but it’s not the same. No one is going to give me an F or fire me if I don’t hand in my work. The only person I have to answer to is myself, and so far, I just don’t seem to be that afraid of me.
So I’ve been trying to figure out how to get myself going. I’ve read blogs and books and done challenges and found online friends to cheer me on and I’ve made some progress, but I haven’t been consistent. I’m having trouble putting all the pieces together, but I think I might be on the verge of a breakthrough. In the comments a few posts back, a fellow writer named Gerhi Feuren pointed me towards a great blog post by Penelope Trunk about willpower. I highly recommend you read the whole post, but Trunk’s key point is that willpower is a limited resource. As she says, “It turns out that we only have a very little bit, and we cannot be demanding it of ourselves all day long because that would exhaust our supply and make us nuts. Which is, of course, what I do.” This idea was a revelation to me. I’ve been cursing myself for years for not having “enough” willpower. At any given time, I’m trying to exercise more, eat less (and better), spend less money, clean more, be more organized, get more (and better) sleep, do more work, and get more writing done. All of those things require willpower–more, it would seem, than I have.
Luckily, Trunk has some ways to make the most of your limited supply of willpower. Her first tip is to set a rigid schedule. This makes a lot of sense to me. Life is made up of habits and ruts. It’s easy to do something that you’ve done a million times before. If you’ve brushed your teeth every night right before bed, then tonight it’s not going to take a lot of willpower to brush your teeth. So all I need to do is figure out a schedule and then stick to it. Piece of cake, right?
If only. Another one of Trunk’s insights comes in to play here. Number three on her lists of things that you can substitute for willpower is “accurate personal assessments.” In this case, the thing I need to accurately assess about myself is my energy level, because the most effective schedule will plan tasks that require a lot of brain power for times when your energy is highest. You might already know when your peak performance times are, but if you don’t, check out Charlie Gilkey’s productivity heatmap. Gilkey is a godsend for creative people who are trying to be as productive as possible. I’ve just started using his planners (which I’ll talk more about at a later time) and they in turn pointed me towards the heatmap, because they encourage planning based on your personal energy cycles. I’m still working on my own heatmap because I’ve been caught in a cycle of going to bed late and waking up late, which makes it hard for me to chart early mornings, but I’m excited to think that I’m making progress towards not only being more productive, but also towards a better understanding of myself and my natural energy patterns. It’s unrealistic to think that we can operate at 100% all day, every day, so we owe it to ourselves to figure out our best times so that we can take advantage of them.
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