What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing--and can you eliminate it?
When I read this question, I thought, wow, what a difficult question that I have no idea how to answer. To be honest, there aren't many things that I do every single day. In the last year, I have significantly decreased my TV watching, to the point that several days may pass before I actually turn on the TV with the intent to watch something. Before this year, that would have been the answer and a resounding yes that I could eliminate that particular activity. Today though, December 2, 2010, the one thing that I do every day that does not contribute to my writing is procrastination. Does this count? I don't know, but I'm going with it.
The question is, why do I procrastinate? Pretty much the answer to this question is that it's been difficult to make myself work--work as in write my dissertation, work as in grading, work as in submitting job applications. Because these are the things that are the most pressing in my life right now. Believe me when I say that I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out why this is, and perhaps I still haven't come to a conclusion. But I pretty much procrastinate and focus my attention on other chores that are basically meaningless and I tell myself that in doing them I'm spending time "thinking"--thinking about what I'm going to write next or do next. And yet that "thinking" doesn't always translate to doing. That's what I need in my life, more doing.
So the short answer is that yes, I can eliminate procrastination from my life. The question is, how to eliminate? How to stop procrastinating? I can honestly say I just don't have the answers to these questions. That's probably not okay, is it?
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