Motivators

It pains me sometimes that I have too many things on various mediums to consume.

I’m afraid, folks, this is another of those annoying… and I find myself searching for an appropriate term… angsty posts that I tend to do every so often bemoaning the fact that I haven’t done stuff that I want to do, but haven’t because the planets haven’t been aligned correctly ad infinitum.

What’s brought about this terrible bout of procrastination? And how on earth can I conquer it? I’ve a few ideas, but I may need some help…

First of all, look at the stack of  books I’ve got to read. That I want to read. And reading is fun. Nothing like it, really. But I just need to motivate myself to get up, switch the television or the internet off, and sit down for half an hour and just enjoy reading. Maybe my hesitation comes down to my mild eyesight issues that have cropped up over the past eighteen months, which can make focussing on huge blocks of text a challenge. Really ought to book that appointment at the opticians and see if that’s anything serious.

I mean, when you walk past the shelf in the shop and see a new book on sale for £1, when it has a recommended retail price of £6.99, how can one say no?!

But that’s  not the only thing. I’ve a stack of Audible credits with which I can purchase fine audiobooks. My current one is Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great, and considering I enjoyed and found Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion absolutely fascinating, I should be steaming through it. But I’m not making any real progress, which upsets me. Why? If I listen in bed, I’m extremely prone to nodding off and losing my place, which is frightfully annoying, and is a sieve for any motivation to carry on. Maybe I should listen to it  just on my computer during the daytime? Perhaps, but the computer is too distracting, so I might just retire to my bed and prop myself up with the Zune player going. Could work. Worth a try.

I do listen to podcasts a lot, too. They’re always fun. I’ve got three shows from the TWiT network (Security Now, This Week In Tech and Windows Weekly) that I absolutely adore and find really interesting and entertaining, so I’d recommend those to you, dear reader. I like to listen to those on the way to work, as opposed to the full-blown audiobooks, because the podcasts are less heavy-going and can be done with the attention levels that walking to work entail. Maybe I savour the audiobooks for at home, subconsciously?

A very good friend of mine, for my 21st birthday, bought me a three-month gift subscription to the LoveFilm online rental outlet; think of it as the UK version of Netflix. I’ve seen some great films, and have plenty more to come. I’m also now a paying customer for this service. However, sometimes, and I have to admit quite a lot of these times are unjustified and lazy, I’ve “not been in the filmy mood” and not watched. This resulted in a couple of discs being left for about seven weeks. Seven weeks! I did watch them in the end and they were worth it. I just find that I’m getting annoyed with myself for this needless, and quite strange attitude of “I’ll do it later” which I know is terrible and I need to work on it.

I’ve also got a few lovely computer (as in big box on my desk; I don’t own any consoles) games to ebb away at my time; mainly the first two Assassin’s Creed games as heavily advocated by a friend of mine, who, as it happens gifted me the second game on Steam, with the proviso that I finish it by November. Again, with the DVDs and films, I just have to get into the mood more.

The thing that has, and it pains me to say this, suffered most has to  be my writing. This post alone could’ve been hammered out in 45 minutes but I, for reasons unknown to myself, nibbled away at it over two days. This isn’t acceptable; this means topics I want to blog about become irrelevant and old news quickly, which is too bad, as I had some great articles to comment on in my drafts folder. I will do them, but I’ll have to make it clear that I started them ages ago and have only just completed them.

Oh, and say nothing about my video blog series. I’m having a sabbatical, and I’m sticking to that story!

In terms of my novel, work on that has slowed again to almost a crawl. It’s as if I’m scared to write it almost! This shouldn’t be; when I do have a writing session, I enjoy it immensely! I just get the pangs of thinking “I have too much to do”, “what I’m writing isn’t as good as it was in my head” and “why can’t I write the bit I really want”; which upset me really. My book is a labour of love, that has gestated in my mind for over two years. I should be relishing the chance of putting pen to paper, or, more precisely, finger to keyboard.

And no, I cannot just write the juicy, show-piece action scene in my head and leave it at that. Context.

Maybe it’s the huge stack of “unedited” manuscript in front of me that’s putting it off? Maybe I have made an error in writing three whole new chapters before making even a first preliminary passing over the whole thing since I wrote it in November? Maybe I feel I’m in too deep and can’t continue either way?

Perhaps I should start editing it all over again with a pass over the entire November 2010 manuscript, only adding comments to it and leaving the chapters I’ve written since then in a separate document to be integrated later. Seems like a rational solution.

I just really, really need to stop this procrastination. I need to sit down and do these various things. I have to stop thinking of these things as chores, because they’re not. They should be extremely fun, not nerve-wracking and reducing me to a quivering wreck.

Perhaps I should configure my router to cut me off from the internet at various points during the day? When I have the occasional outage, my writing productivity becomes markedly better. Perhaps I should have a solely work-dedicated user account for my writing and stuff, disconnected from Facebook, Twitter and other distractions. Perhaps I should repurpose one of my older computers into a dedicated writing environment, where I’ll be away from distractions as they won’t be installed to begin with.

What are your suggestions for beating my procrastination? I’d love a bit of reader participation; I know I get a good trickle of hits, and it’s about time you lot gave something back!

I jest, of course; I appreciate every hit I get. I just feel like suffering in silence, or the internet equivalent of an empty room is not helpful.

Or healthy. Good gravy.

On the plus side, one thought that keeps me sane and devoted to, whichever way I do manage to solve it, actually finishing and persevering with this lot, has to be: if that bitch Stephenie Meyer can do it, I sure as hell can, too!

She can’t even spell her first name right, for crying out loud. Bless.