March 03, 2010

Getting things done the procrastinator's way

Don't forget you have just over 48 hours to enter THE TABBY CATT's In Like a Lion contest!

Each week, YA Highway hosts a blog carnival called Road Trip Wednesday, in which contributors discuss a specific topic on their own blogs and invite readers to do the same. This week's Road Trip Wednesday topic is:

The ways you procrastinate.


I, my friends, am an expert procrastinator. How do I do it, you ask?

Well...

I'll tell you in a little while.

What's that?

You need to know now?

For this exact post?

Oh, okaaaaay.

The main ways I used to procrastinate involved reading Hollywood gossip blogs like TMZ and trolling MySpace, but I realized I was wasting a lot of time reading negative stuff about people I don't know (hmmm, goes for TMZ and MySpace), so I stopped visiting those sites.

I made the switch to Facebook-only last year, and I've found I can stay in touch with friends on there without the time-drain MySpace was bad for. Unless you play Farmville, for which there should be a Farmville Addicts Anonymous support group. I played it for one week and then quit cold turkey. A time-sucking vortex, that game is.

Another way I procrastinate is by blogging or reading other writers' blogs. Though I consider blogging/reading blogs to be a part of my job, this is what happens when I am procrastinating:

I'll just see if I have any new comments on my blog. I'll just see if anyone I follow has posted anything new. I'll just see what new comments were left after mine on Kiersten White's blog...

On it goes.

And finally, my biggest procrastination tactic is... *DUM DUM DUM*

Reading.

When working on my book is just too darn difficult and I want to put it off until later (at which point I will of course magically know exactly how to fix the one sentence I've been staring at for 30 minutes straight), I read.

Because, you know... it is a part of my job, after all. An even bigger part than blogging. It's really important that a writer read ALL THE TIME, right?

Right?


Weronika Janczuk is having a major contest in celebration of her 500th follower on Twitter, with prizes including preorders of Kiersten White's PARANORMALCY, 50 page critiques, and more. Check out the contest here!

11 comments:

Michelle Schusterman said...

Good for you for quitting Farmville! I've never played it. It frightens me, how many friends I have that seem to have dozens of updates a day on that thing!

Debbie Barr said...

Stop pre-stealing my post ideas! First you blog about winning a contest before me, and now this? I was totally going to write about procrastinating today.

I do much the same. Blogging/other internet related things is a HUGE time sucker for me. I have to be very careful or I spend all my time on the internet.

Rachel Bateman said...

Ah, Farmville. I am one of the lucky ones who has not been pulled into the game. I saw how addicted my friends all got, so I blocked all Farmville applications from my News Feed. Now they can't even tempt me.

That might have been the smartest Facebook move I ever made. It's not like I need something else fighting for my attention!

, said...

When I procrastinate lately, I go out for a walk. I figure that is just as productive. And I've been doing a lot of procrastinating lately. I want to give my head a break from writing. Typing. I've ben trying to type things up, I don't much like that part at all.

Abby Stevens said...

Michelle - Thanks for stopping! It scares me, too, how many people seem to play Farmville all day long. What was even scarier, though, was how addictive it was. I am glad I quit while I was ahead! :D

Debbie - Yep, the internet is our best and worst friend. And procrastination must be in the air today. Natalie Whipple also wrote about procrastinating today, too.

Rachel - you are right - probably a VERY smart move on your part. :D

Heidi - I definitely think walking is productive! And sometimes we just need a break!

Kiersten White said...

I'm so glad I'm a procrastinatory outlet for you : )

Not that I, uh, ever procrastinate by having myself on Google Alert or anything...

Great, now I sound lazy AND hugely egotistical.

Kaitlin Ward said...

Farmville is evil.

Krispy said...

Procrastinators unite! Oh man, I may have to steal this blog topic since I've been procrastinating on writing some of the blog post ideas I saved. Hmm.

I think the internet in general is a giant TIME-sucking vortex of black-hole-like doom. My FB game addiction is Bejeweled, partly because it calls to both my competitiveness and laziness. Deadly combination.

Alyson said...

My procrastination creeps up on me. I’ll start writing and a few minutes later I’ll want to listen to music. I’ll flip to a song that matches the mood of the scene and then I’ll wonder what the music video for that song is like. Of course I won’t be able to find it easily on YouTube, so I just watch funny videos for an hour till I realize I want to go to bed. The same thing happens with having the TV on in the background. Fifteen minutes into an episode I’ll end up watching a completely different series on Hulu. Sigh. I think my attention span gets shorter and shorter every day.
- Alyson

YA Highway said...

thanks for procrastinating! Oops -- we mean participating :)

Unknown said...

Well, I have no idea what Farmville is, but i do know about procrastinating. My way is to say "I'll do that tomorrow", and then when I do think of it tomorrow, I say, "I'll do that tomorrow". And then it's like 3 weeks later, and I'm like "Crap!! I was supposed to do that 2 weeks ago!".

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