Pushing Past Procrastination

Every freelance writer runs into it… the urge to do something else — anything  other than write. You might have a half a dozen articles to work on, a list a mile high of topics you want to research, but you just can’t get past YouTube or Facebook.

Most of the time you can push yourself past procrastination by bribing yourself with a reward – a treat when you finish the next task. You’ll find that once you begin working and get that first task accomplished, the rest will follow smoothly.

You might also be procrastinating because the task ahead of you is too large to wrap your brain around. Try breaking up your task into smaller, more manageable chunks and reward yourself for getting the first one done.

Sometimes, the only thing that works is a dose of accountability. Tell someone or several people about what you’re doing, when you’re going to get it done, and how awesome it will be when it is done. You just know that at least some of those people will ask about it later, and you’ll get your work done just to avoid the embarrassment of saying, “umm, I didn’t finish it.”

On occasion, however, you will want to just take a few hours doing something totally different. If you still want to get paid for doing things that aren’t work, there are a few neat options to explore.

  • Make money reading and posting comments and discussions on blogs and forums at PostLoop.com
  • Play games or watch videos for gift cards or cash at SwagBucks.com
  • Get paid for reading emails, watching videos, playing games and shopping online at InboxDollars.com

Whatever you do, be sure to get to business again as soon as you can. Procrastination will only cause you stress, which will make you enjoy your time away from work less than if you finished your work first.

1 Comment

  1. Over the years, I’ve written a number of sequences about various events that involve characters from the other side of the law. My life has not been easy. I also wanted to wait until good people were/are no longer around, because I just did not want them to have more difficulties, because of me. Only recently, did I also come upon the right formula. I would like to write narratives that only loosely connect with one another, and I want to write those in the third person. Please respond via e-mail.

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