Don’t bogart that motivation, my friend.

Have you ever been faced with a project and timeline that is easily achievable, only to find yourself a virtual 2 breaths away from said deadline with nothing done on the project at all?

Hey - Me too!!

I was having lunch with a group of folks the other day who have the same job as I do, and we all agreed that it is the way of our people to procrastinate, divert attention to less-important projects, or flat-out waste time until such time as there’s almost no time left, at which point we get right on the ball and in a frenzy of nightmarish productivity we turn out the product, generally on time and 85% well done.

Begs the question: what the heck is WRONG with all of us?

Is this the kind of behavior that runs rampant in your field of work? I can’t believe that only writers suffer from the ‘wait ‘til panic sets in’ behavior in their work ethic. Surely engineers, programmers, and others engage in this poor excuse for professionalism, right? RIGHT?

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All the other jobs I’ve had before becoming a writer were ‘daily production’ type jobs: waiter, teacher, radio announcer, etc. Those jobs were satisfying in a way that writing doesn’t lend itself to (at least as I perform the act): you showed up on time, did your time, and walked out knowing you’d done what was expected of you for that chunk of your day.

Kind of nice, but at the same time HAVING to be someplace for a period of time, the race against the clock, rankled. I’m never happy, that much is clear. If I’m not forced into daily proof of my worth, then I don’t make many of my days at work truly worthwhile, but dang if I bristle at someone making me show up and produce.

So, it’s a struggle.

However, now that I’m staring wild-eyed at yet another deadline that coming at me at a hair-raising pace, I can once again feel the adrenaline surge starting, and you can just BET that I’ll be all OVER this project, very very soon.

Like, last week would have been nice.

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Anyhow, that’s what on my mind. Do feel free to offer some shaming in the comments, or perhaps some moral support as I’ve just offered up a little of my failing as a human being which of course means I deserve a lot of ‘there there dear’s and suchlike. They’re ever so much better than shamings, don’t you think?

Tiff out.