Category Archives: Freelance Friends Podcasts

How many times have you found yourself in a blind panic over a deadline that’s about to be blown? Well, don’t fret, we’ve all been there. This week we’re discussing procrastination and how to avoid it. Here are a few things you can do to get your procrastinating ways under control:

• Location, location, location. Productivity is as much about sitting down and doing the work as it is about where you’re doing your work. Move your desk to a distraction-free zone. Carve out a little space for yourself that is strictly for work.
• Set your hours and stick to them. After you set your hours, track them. Get a planner that has the day broken up into 15-minute increments. If you’re into spreadsheets, log your hours in Excel or Numbers. Then you can make nifty little charts and graphs analyzing how you spent your day, week, month and year.
• Turn off the Internet. Unplug yourself for a few hours. Sign out of Gchat. Ban yourself from Facebook. Sometimes the Internet is not your friend.
• Make a to-do list. Prioritize the list. Ask yourself what needs to be done right now? What can wait? When you make your list, make it manageable. Don’t put so much on your list or tasks that are so big (I’m writing the whole novel by tonight!) that you overwhelm yourself into giving up for the day. You’re not a failure if you spend the afternoon writing one scene in a chapter, one section of your article, or just playing hooky if that’s what you need to do. Your work will get done.
• Get your hands dirty. Sometimes you just can’t get yourself to work on writing that article and you’ll complete everything on your to do list but the most important task. This is when you just have to suck it up, dig your heels in and force yourself to get to work. Once you get going, chances are you’ll find that it’s not as bad as I thought it was.
• Give yourself an artist date. One of Julia Cameron’s suggestions in The Artist’s Way to combat writer’s block (procrastination) is to allow yourself to go out and do something fun once a week. Whether it’s treating yourself to a manicure or a fresh basket of raspberries, doing something good for yourself can help combat the “I don’t want to do this!” mentality.

LINKS DEALING WITH PROCRASTINATION:

• It’s Never Too Late to Stop Procrastinating
• How to Stop Procrastinating — Now

Freelance Friends First Giveaway!
We’re giving away one FREE yearlong subscription to Every Day with Rachael for one lucky reader. There are 3 ways to enter and multiple entries give you more chances to win! Contest starts today and ends on Wednesday, August 18th.

1) Make a comment on our Procrastination podcast and tell us one tip you use to battle procrastination.
2) Email us with a freelance question at freelancefriends@gmail.com and we’ll answer it on an upcoming podcast.
3) Tweet this blog post (include the Twitter handles @jchenwriter and @rdotflorez).
4) Subscribe to my blog.
5) Post a link to this very post on your blog & email it to us!

Freelance Friends is produced by Rita and Jennifer. Tune in September 1st for our podcast about finding work. We’ll discuss the resources available to writers, Craigslist, and much, much more. Email us at freelancefriends@gmail.com and we’ll discuss your comments on the air!