Did he say procrastination can be a good thing?
I did.
Sometimes it's the best thing in the world, and I know I couldn't have written any of my books without it. Is it always good? Of course not. Procrastination can keep you from doing what needs to be done and turn an open swath of afternoon into a wasted haze of Hulu and Gummi Bears. Not that I have any experience with that...
I was reading this classic blog post by Silicon Valley guru Paul Graham called Good and Bad Procrastination. He's a really smart guy who says a lot of really smart things. I recommend you read his blog in general. But here's what got me thinking about the advantages of procrastination to authors:
"The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators."
He actually wrote that. And I disagreed at first, but then I read on as he talked about how people who put off doing "small things" to do "big things" get those big things done. In Graham's words a few paragraphs later, "Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work."
And I realized, this is what I did when I finished my last book. This is what I do when I have a great week of writing. And this is what my author friends are doing when I don't see them for weeks at a time.
Authors need gigantic swaths of time to think, write, rewrite, sleep, rewrite, start over, rewrite again, etc. Authors need time to sit and argue with characters. Authors need time to go for walks, to get lost in thought, and to write, write, write.
Things like shopping, doing laundry, shaving, going to the bank, etc. all get in the way. My own favorite? Getting a haircut. I go through half of my life with hair way longer than I'd like it, all because when I plan out my day in the morning I can think of so many more important things I want to work on than take two hours out to go get my hair cut.
Do we all have to do errands? Of course. None of us can avoid errands entirely.
But my point here is that authors don't just "have license" to do it, we need to do it. We have to put off the million errands on the list to make time and space for writing. I'm writing this article to say, it's ok. You're doing what you have to do. It's good.
As for the other kind of procrastinating, the kind where you put off writing to make time for all the errands? Well, if that's your approach, how much writing are you getting done?
Image courtesy of Ed Yourdon via flickr
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