I wish I could take credit for that wonderful turn of phrase, but it isn’t mine. I don’t know when I first heard it, but I certainly (as they say) felt seen. I would imagine most of us can relate to the feeling at one time or another.
The most recent sighting was from YouTuber Laura Kampf, who I have mentioned here before. She takes on projects both large and small, and this recent video was creating a small project as a way to avoid the massive project – renovating a house from the turn of the previouscentury.
Her big house project (she also did a tiny house over the winter so she had a place to live) stalled in the fall due to weather, with plans to resume when the weather improved. Which was all reasonable. She couldn’t continue the work on the big house in freezing rain; not in a building still missing some walls.
Instead she turned to smaller projects, like her tiny house. But when it came time to re-start the big house she hesitated. The size and scope of the undertaking overwhelmed her, and she found herself procrastinating by doing things like making the sandwich toaster station she created in this video.
In the video she talks about the feeling of being overwhelmed by a project that feels so big and important, with so many critical pieces, that she struggles to resume work.
(Spoiler alert: she does get back to the big house, and there is already at least one sequel video showing her working on her new windows, so there is a happy ending.)
Watching her work through this made me realize that this is a common problem for creatives. It is so easy to let other things intrude on our creative time. “Hey, I really need to fold this laundry.” “I’m hungry, so I’ll go find a snack.” “I want another cup of coffee, but the pot’s empty. Maybe I’ll just run down and pick up a coffee. And I should probably stop at the grocery store while I’m out.” “My partner really wants to watch that movie, but they’re waiting for me to share it. I don’t want to make them wait any longer.”
Admit it, we’ve all done it. Hell, I’ve been doing it just this week. I let a distraction put me into procrastination mode and I want to bring myself back out of it. I just need to work through what it is that I am avoiding, and that should give me a clue as to what I need to change.
In the meantime, I will take encouragement from Laura, and the fact that she is back to work on the big house. I hope her video will offer you some encouragement, too.
And if you have a clue how to take the PRO outof procrastination, I’d love to hear it!