Leslie Dow

Exorcising Demons: Demon #649 Procrastination

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on May 8th, 2010 at 02:58 PM (642 Views)

The weeds in my yard have begun to demand their rights as citizens of the planet or at least neighborhood. I live in Northern California where until recently, the rain has obscured the nasty dirt streaks and goo left on my windows by by lizard-sneezes and boy-fingers. Now, the cheery May sun is helpfully pointing this out, "See Leslie, here's one! and look over there Iggy left you a big pressie". Ewwww.

For months, I've been happily beavering away on my WIP and the new Savvy Newsletter, pointedly ignoring the state of my homestead. Procrastination? Is it or prioritization? They both start with P. If you talk to my husband you might get an earful.

When I refused a recent consulting engagement to write, I promised DH that I would also tackle years of deferred home maintenance, the fallout from two busy careers, while I focused on writing. Then I was seduced, not by the pool boy - I'm supposed to maintain the pool. I was seduced by writing! So, now I'm in the odd situation of procrastinating not writing, but damn near everything else! This is funny, not to DH, but hilarious to me. There is a reason that I logged 100, 000 words in March and 60,00 words in April. BIC, baby. This procrastination thing - it works both ways! Who knew?

The key must lie in balance, yeah, yeah that's what we all say. For me, it's got to be about externally applied goals so it's time to rope in the computer and believe it or not, writing time so I can deal with the real world things around me. I think I need Jus's 12 step but for idiots like me! I guess I better update my goals to add some things, like PULL THE WEEDS...

Not that writing is not real....but look at those weeds... You tell me...weeds....or.......demons? Hmmmm.....

Tags: goals, procrastination

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Comments

Heather Howland - May 9th, 2010 11:40 PM

Oh boy... I understand this too well!! My house is in a perpetual state of disaster (not disarray--that would be too big an understatement) and I can't figure out why everything is a mess when I spend most of my time writing/editing. Luckily my husband understands. I may point out that procrastination and prioritization are remarkably similar "P" words if he ever brings it up. I think I'm prioritizing! Doing the dishes doesn't have near the moneymaking potential... LOL

(Yes, I am aware that writing won't make me any money. Allow me my delusions!)
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Leslie Dow - May 10th, 2010 12:44 AM

Wait, wait....writing won't make money.....Nooooo....LOL. I refuse to believe that. I belive we will all be published and make money. Maybe not on the JK Rowling private jet class but a respectable I no longer feel like a drain on the household economy class!
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Tara Neale - May 11th, 2010 07:20 AM

How about a Spring Cleaning day that involves the WHOLE family? Even small children can pull weeds.

I admit though that I proudly boast the title homemaker/erotic writer, so to some degree I am close to achieving balance. But even when you get to this point, you won't please everyone. I have a pretty good schedule that works for me, but my husband is not happy because I stack the dinner dishes by the sink and do them the first thing next morning after I drop our daughter at school. But I refuse to budge on this one. At some point the answer...Well, do it yourself if it is so important...has to come into play. I use it judiciously.
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Florina Craven - May 20th, 2010 02:19 AM

I am a big fan of hiring a cleaning service. It's really not that expensive if you only do it once in a while. I get so much from having my house cleaned so I can focus on other stuff that I alone have to do. Like pull the weeds, sure you could hire a landscape service, but I know that cost way more than a house cleaning. Good luck taming those weeds. I call that delegating.
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