Procrastination

Dawdling, dabbling, delaying, dilly-dallying, frittering, frivoling, idling, loafing, loitering, playing, postponing, stalling. They all mean the same thing: to put off. I am good at it. Too good, I fear.

And when I am questioned about my progress (the project matters not--could be anything from cooking dinner to editing my next novel), I have perfected the hemming and hawing answer that is sure to baffle the interrogator into a frustrated fit (90% of the time the interrogator is my husband who has learned over the years that it's safer not to do too much questioning unless he wants to end up walking away, scratching his head and muttering, "What the hell did she just say?"). 

Just this week, I was interviewed by an editor of a popular romance novel review magazine and I told the woman, "There's nothing better than being your own boss." And here I sit this morning, blogging, reading e-mail and tweets, checking facebook, pacing, eating, doing anything and everything beside what I should be doing: editing my book. One negative about being your own boss is that there's no one to light a fire under you when there's work to be done.

I read an article on overcoming procrastination which suggested:

Just do it!

Break the larger task into smaller tasks.

Complete the most difficult task first.

Reward yourself.

Now THERE'S advice I can follow! I'll send one more tweet as a reward...and then I'll get to work. I promise.