Friday, March 7, 2008

Procrastination Can Be Fun

OK, so I'm a bad blogger again. But it's because I had a pretty good writing week, so I get extra points for that. I wrote 15 pages worth of chapter headers from the point of view of my two main Filioli (small winged ladies and gentlemen, infesting a pub), figured out why a couple of characters aren't working and sort of fixed them. (Actually, the fix on one of them is going to be trouble--it may mean we have to see more of his parents and then we'll need more backstory on them...and it could go on that way forever.) And revised, revised, revised.

And hooked up DSL! My little town enters the 21st Century! (I personally am in the slow lane, but still...) And taught my writers group at the school.

And managed to fit in a touch of procrastination.

Back in the 1920s or so, Robert Benchley devoted one of his columns to a lesson on "how to get things done." I haven't read it for a while, but my recollection is that he'd make a list of things he MUST do, putting the least important at the top. Then he'd sneak off and work on the second thing in order to procrastinate on the first, then tackle the third thing while procrastinating on the second, and so on down the list until he got to the last item, which was the one that really needed doing and that actually got done.

So that's why I had such a good time writing this week. What I was supposed to do was organize all my tax stuff for the accountant. (I know...it's wimpy for a midget like me to have an accountant. But I'm a terrible form-filler-outer.)

Now it's 4 p.m. on Friday and I came in here after a walk vowing to get serious about the taxes once and for all.

Which is why I'm writing a blog entry.

See how that works?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE that list idea, especially since procrastination is one of my hobbies. Another thing I do is to make a list that includes things I've already done, and then cross those off. It makes me feel like I've actually accomplished something, which *sometimes* inspires me to do even more...and sometimes inspires me to just relax and put the rest off because, hey, I've already gotten a few important things done today, so why sweat the rest?

TJ Brown said...

Procrastination is not good. Which is why I'm reading blogs instead of writing.
Ha!
teri