Tip 10: Take the 10 minute test
A procrastinating-busting experiment. Find out if you really need to do that extra reading and research.
How do you know whether you’re procrastinating or not? It’s easy to tell if the thing you’re doing instead of writing is scrolling Instagram, ordering some more stationery from Amazon or cleaning every window in the house. In these cases, your procrastination is quite obvious.
It’s hard to know if the delay is justified if the thing you’re doing feels like ‘writing’. Extra reading, more research, perhaps some more editing, researching more courses to build your skills, etc.
We’ve all felt that nagging fear of committing words to a page - perhaps I’m not ready yet? That’s all perfectly normal. The key to finding out whether you’re procrastinating or not it to give yourself a little test.
Don’t assume - test
It could be that you need to do that extra research - all that reading might be valid. It could also be that you’re delaying because your perfectionist tendencies are kicking in.
In this situation, don’t assume you can’t get started - experiment and take the ten minute test. Ask yourself:
Can I write for just 10 minutes?
Set a timer and have a go at getting some words on the page.
It could be that you can’t move forward without more research. If so, fine - you’ve proved your research was necessary after all, so go and do it and stop worrying about not writing.
You might also find that you can write after all. There might be big gaps in your knowledge, but you might be able to write something.
If in doubt - test. Don’t assume you can’t move forward but find out what your writing needs right now.
Keep writing, Bec and Chris
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