Procrastination Required
It's the Only Way Forward...
When you’re lying on the couch, procrastinating, what are you thinking?... Is it anything like…?
Whoa! WHAT A WASTE OF TIME!
or
What’s wrong with me?
… your inner critic calls you names, and you should-should-should yourself.
It feels b-a-a-a-d.
But when you’re procrastinating…
It’s not a character flaw
There’s probably a good reason
It is a clue to how you think, creatively
In creativity, Procrastination is Required.
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Master Your Creative Process and Write with Ease and Satisfaction
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It can be incubation time. Einstein played the violin when physics frustrated him. He valued “procrastinating.” I often play Solitaire - unapologetically. Do I wish I played something more erudite? Sure. It would be better if when I was too stymied to write creatively, I switched off to solving world peace. But Solitaire does the trick. Einstein called it Combinatory Play. I call it Procrastubation. Read more about it here.
Procrastination can also be a window into your creative struggles.
It helps to use Deliberate Creativity (based on the Foursight Creative Thinking Model, developed by Dr. Gerard Puccio, chair of the International Center for Creativity at Buffalo State College, where I got my Masters in Creativity.)
The Deliberate Creativity model divides the creative thinking into four phases, that happen over and over again. Each has a different action and desired outcome.
Clarity
Ideas
Structure
Finish
Understanding these can help you see what saps your energy. And when you know that, you can predict it and even prevent the couch crash into oblivion.
You’ll feel better about your struggle – like you’re not a terrible person, but maybe a cranky Clarifier or mopey Finisher.
Forewarned is forearmed. There are proven tools, developed over the last 70 years by creativity practitioners, like me. We know a lot about how creativity works. Writers, dancers, actors, entrepreneurs and painters ignore this wealth of information at their peril.
Which phase of creative thinking robs you of hope and energy? Which inspires you to great heights?
Learn more from my book, Write Without the Fight: Master Your Creative Process and Write with Ease and Satisfaction, the Ebook is free on Amazon for the next five days.