PROCRASTIWORKING by Joylene M Bailey

 

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I learned a new word on the weekend. 

Procrastiworking.

I'm sure you've guessed what it means: avoiding the work you need to complete by doing other work instead.

I'm guilty of it. Sitting at my computer, blank page glaring, or feeling stuck in the muck of a problematic passage, I suddenly have the urge to get a drink of water. On the way to the kitchen I remember that I meant to cull through my closet last month. Now's as good a time as any. When half my closet has been dumped on the bed I come across an ancient flip phone. Could I still get cash for this thing, I wonder? Before you can say DON'T DO IT, I'm searching the internet for flip-phone forums. Which, of course, leads to spiralling into the void of YouTube videos on our late Queen's surviving Corgis.

Is any of this helpful for my work in progress?

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The one-day writing summit I attended on the weekend highlighted procrastiworking. Only, they described it differently. They suggested that instead of pulling your hair out as you force the right words from your brain through your fingers onto the page, do something else.

Do anything else rather than striving on a [work in progress]. You free your mind to make connections not otherwise made. 

-- Terry & Eric Fan --

writers and illustrators

Hmmm ... I'm still trying to get my head around doing anything else as being helpful. Maybe?

I was definitely on board later in the day, when someone suggested that doing something else creative helped to open up new creative pathways in the brain so that when you go back to the page, creativity for the original project is refreshed, and you can come to the problem in a new way. 

For me, that creative outlet is sewing, specifically quilting. My mood shifts to calm and joy as soon as I lay my eyes on the fabric I'm about to use. And, at whatever stage I'm at in the quilting process, whether choosing the fabric colours & patterns to match or contrast, cutting out or assembling the pieces, machine-stitching or hand-sewing, my mind is busy working out puzzles. Puzzles in the quilt itself, puzzles in my life and in my work. So that when I go back to the work on the page, often the tweaks I need to refine and perfect the problematic passage are right there at the front of my mind.    

It might seem like procrastinating but in actuality it's still working on the WIP.

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I like this positive spin on the term procrastiworking. Not only does it take away the burdensome guilt of doing something other than writing, it excites and fulfills me to know that while my hands might be doing something else, my brain can still be working on my writing project. I'm not wasting time. Maybe not even when I'm searching out the names of the late Queen's two living Corgis.

Incidentally, Muick and Sandy are well and happy, and living in the home of Prince Andrew, Sarah Duchess of York, and five Norfolk Terriers.  

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All photos above courtesy of Pixabay.com

Joy doesn't have any Corgis, but she does have a Swiss Mountain Puppy, and a Cowboy who loves them both. She writes and procrastiworks from north of Pigeon Lake, Alberta. Find more of her Joy-infused view on the world at Scraps of Joy.