Day 654: Battling procrastination and laziness

Health versus laziness

For the past few days, I had some bad IBS flare-ups. On Monday and Tuesday, I actually got some writing done before the flare-ups started, but ended up only getting the bare minimum of blocking done. And then yesterday, the flare-ups were on and off all day, so I only got the bare minimum done.

I probably should have posted my daily writing times even though they were just the bare minimum, but sometimes I feel like there’s no point in doing that, because there have been SO many days where I simply felt too sick to work.

I also have to be careful not to just give up and do the bare minimum on a day where the pain isn’t TOO bad but I’m just being lazy. Monday was actually like that. I did get a full 800 words written, and when the flare-up started, I did the bare minimum of blocking (just to make sure I got it done for the day), and I intended to do more blocking later. But I never went back to work, even though the flare-up died down a bit more after dinner.

I don’t know why some days I feel lazy whereas other days I’m motivated to work. It could be that the flare-up made me tired, but I don’t know why sometimes I can work through a flare-up and other times I can’t. It could be that sometimes the IBS drains more of my energy on some days versus others, but I don’t want to just write it off as a health issue when it might be a discipline issue that I should address.

However, Monday was my only lazy day. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was actually very sick with both IBS and a headache. So I guess it was good it was only the one day that I felt lazy.

It could be that I haven’t spent enough time reading and relaxing, which might have prompted the lazy day. So I guess I need to work harder to make sure I spend enough time each day reading.

Battling procrastination

Last night, I slept extra long and I feel better today (or rather, right now, at least). However, I don’t know why, but it took a while for me to start work today. I procrastinated by looking up books on Archive.org.

However, I had remembered to set my alarm to remind myself to breathe every hour, and the alarm going off did help to remind me to get to work. So in that sense, the hourly alarm really helped snap me out of a short bout of procrastination. I might have snapped out of it eventually, but maybe not as soon. So even though the hourly alarm was mostly to remind myself to stop and breathe for a minute, to help me to be more focused, it actually helped me with my procrastination, too.

I hope that as I learn how to focus more intently and don’t need to breathe to combat distracted thoughts, then perhaps I won’t need to set my alarm anymore. But I have a feeling that will take a long time. I think that I am very prone to distraction and procrastination, even when I have excellent intentions and the motivation to get work done. I really don’t know why I’m like this, and I should probably figure out 1) why I procrastinate even though I enjoy the writing so much, and 2) what I can do to prevent myself from procrastinating.

So far, I have figured out a fix for #2, and that is to have a special, tasty treat that I can only eat when I have written my words for the day. I bought an insanely expensive but very good gluten-free pastry box on Etsy, and that actually did motivate me quite well, but I don’t know that I can afford that when I want to motivate myself every single day.

***

I had to stop blocking a little earlier than I had wanted because my back started hurting. I think I’ll break for lunch and then try again afterward.

***

Typically I would beat myself up over taking a long break, but this time I let myself have a long lunch, and now I’m ready to get back to work. So maybe taking long breaks isn’t so bad, if it can help me regain motivation. Before, they would often sidetrack me and I’d get distracted doing other things, and then I’d feel bad that I wasted a couple hours. But today I did some reading during lunch, and I let myself take a couple hours since my IBS had been feeling uncomfortable. And then once my IBS died down a bit, I was able to get right back to work.

Maybe it’s because I was reading to refill the creative well, so it helped my mind feel more refreshed and ready to work? I usually have a hard time stopping reading to get back to work, but this time I didn’t for some reason. I wonder if it’s because I’ve been having more reading time in general lately—3 or 4 hours a day (sometimes 5), as opposed to 1 or 2 hours a day. Maybe because my creative well has been refilled better than normal, I’m not as sucked in by reading like I was when I was only spending an hour reading fiction each day.

The main reason I’ve been reading more lately is because my IBS has made it too difficult for me to work more than 3 or 4 hours a day, although I’ve been increasing that lately. Maybe I really need to focus on making sure to get more reading done, even if it means decreasing my writing time a little. I’ll have to think about that, how to figure out the optimum ratio of reading to working.

Regency series:

Editing: Time spent: 9 minutes

Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 7 minutes

Writing: Total number of words: 1104 words

Writing streak: 133 days

Blocking: time spent: 2 hours, 24 minutes

Blocking streak: 127 days

Hawaii series:

Outlining: time spent: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Time spent doing other writing-related business: 20 minutes (got a bit of marketing done today)

My takeaway for today: Be sure to spend enough time reading, it might make you less likely to be lazy on certain days, and it might help you be more disciplined and motivated to get back to work after breaks.

My second takeaway for today: Setting an hourly alarm on my watch not only reminds me to breathe and help me focus when my mind is distracted, but will also snap me out of procrastination.