I’m sitting in the library right now, having carved out a very precious hour for myself so I can write.

So – what have I done with the first half of my very precious hour?

1) Found and checked out two books from a favorite author.  (Score! I didn’t even know he hadn’t written two new books!)

2) Wandered around the biography section looking at the introductions to memoirs. (Important research for my novel, of course)

3) Checked weei.com, grantland.com, and cnnsi.com. (Just in case, you know, something important happened in the world of sports since I got up this morning.)

4) Read article about the Pirates-Reds game. (After all, my cousin is a big Pirate’s fan, so reading the article is kind of like family loyalty, right?)

5) Check my rss reader for updates on goverment shutdown. (Being an informed citizen! Yay for civic engagement!)

6) Checked weei.com again. (In case, you know, anything else important happened in the last ten minutes).

7) Looked up T.S. Eliot (Because he’s a cool poet, and I’d like to read more poetry.)

I’m truly amazed how, whenever I sit down to write, I procrastinate instead.

I’m becoming really great at it. My excuses for why all those other things are really more important are getting more compelling all the time.

There’s a hard truth I haven’t found my way around though:

In order to accomplish the most important things in life, you have to, well, start doing them first.

So, from one procrastinator to another, (You’re reading my blog, right? Are you sure there’s not something else you should be doing right now?) just go out and do it.

Now.

Don’t think about it.

You don’t even have to read to the end of this post.

Write that novel. Start jogging. Start painting again. Open that book.Make that phone call. Have that tough conversation. Ask that person for forgiveness.

Take that risk you know you should, but always can find reasons not to.

That’s the only way it will happen.

And there’s no better time than now.

Trust me.

 

 

2 Comments

  1. Funny that I should come across this post about procrastinating… I am supposed to be writing a 2,500 word paper on my theology of ministry… hmmm…. guess I should get back to work….

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