All my life, I’ve struggled with procrastination, but rather than beat myself up over it, I sometimes take a look at why I procrastinate. When I figure out the "why’s", I can then devise solutions that enable me to move past my roadblocks. It’s interesting to note that while I have procrastinated in some areas of my life, there are just as many tasks that I attack with enthusiasm. I have to ask myself - what is the difference between the tasks that make me hesitate and those that capture my immediate interest.

Some of my artist friends have no trouble with avoiding difficult tasks - I envy them. But their apparent ease in life does not help me to get past my difficulties because in essence, my personality is so different than theirs. Perhaps you share some of the same personality traits as I do - I suspect that procrastination is a normal human response to uncomfortable circumstances.

My first observation is that the tasks I dive into without hesitation are those that I know I can pull off without much worry - things I’ve done a million times before - so that it seems almost effortless. Well, writing a blog such as this one is practically stressless, while writing my articles for Watercolor Magazine seems, well sometimes, overwhelming. Both are writing... so what’s the deal here? Why is my approach to writing articles for publication so filled with fear? I’ve had about 40 published articles - wouldn’t it seem that I’d be used to it by now?

The difference is the amount of importance that I project into the project. I’m getting paid for the article; it will be reviewed by an editor (whom I’d like to impress) and then published. Artists will pay good money to buy the magazine, and I want to do an excellent job. There is much at stake. Fortunately, the editor does an excellent job by taking my words and pulling them together beautifully. Blogs, on the other hand, are similar to writing in my journal - something I’ve been doing consistently for more than 20 years. Blogs are also done as a volunteer position, so I figure people can take it or leave it. If it’s helpful to others, than great! If not, no one lost any money over it. By the way, writing articles for publication and painting for clients and galleries feels the same to me.

Alas, the articles have a due date - and I seem to pull it off every time. But how could I make the process less stressful? First, I need to understand what circumstances contribute to doing my best work, and find creative ways to remedy the problem. Here’s what comes to mind: Make ‘writing for articles’ a short daily exercise rather than a dreaded task - for example, each morning when my mind is sharp, write in ‘stream of consciousness’ style for 20 or so minutes. When it comes time to do the formal writing for a magazine article - I’ll have plenty of words and sentences to pull from for the article. This means I’ll be creating without pressure. My creativity factor, while painting or writing, freezes up when I feel pressure combined with doubt. However, when I work in the fashion of "fun" or play - I am amazed at what I can do!

Likewise I freeze up when I’m painting for a gallery show. I overwork my paintings - trying to make them perfect. Whereas when I’m relaxed and just ‘doodling’ with paint, the resulting work tends to come out amazingly well! You’ve probably already thought of a solution to this problem. AH HA! Practice every day - do lots of studies - take away the ‘importance’ factor and just paint for fun sometimes and see what happens. Incidently, my next article for Watercolor is going to be on "Practice" and how that benefits the artist (by looking at how practice benefits professional athletes)..... so you see, by writing this blog today, I’m also getting some preliminary work done for that article - with relatively little pressure.