Recently I read an article by Megan McArdle, written last year, on writers being the worst procrastinators. Her reasoning declared was, that we were at the top of our English classes in school, by natural talent, without trying.
I carry on her idea by saying, much to my regret now; I didn’t study like the smart kids did. I was a natural test taker, went over the material the night before and always passed with adequate marks. Sadly, one doesn’t actually learn this way, only gets good grades.
As a result, we wind up leaving our assignments to the last possible moments, when the words begin to finally flow. When we do this, we have no time to edit the article, to improve it, to turn in the perfect piece that editors would not have to scour for the errors we just zipped over, thinking that our content is enough. Shameful.
To go one step further, I found a way to ignore that blank sheet of paper staring back at me. I have several projects going at one time. When one of them gets stubborn; fights against me, I pop it off the computer, put it back into its own little document file and move on to another one that I have stashed away, just waiting. Of course, there is a drawback to this method, too. (There are always drawbacks to everything!) It means that projects seem to drag on, deadlines set by me, smudged over. It’ll be ready next week…..which falls into the following week, which…..