Procrastination (2 Viewers)

Seeing as many of you are writers artists and binderers, I was wondering how you cope with making sure you put in enough effort to see end results? Maybe it is not applicable to most of you, but I cannot seem to incite myself to do anything. I'd claim ennui but it really is just general idleness. From what I can tell there's no causality to the matter. Any tips to move past that wall? I can only jerk off so many times before I lose interest in the one thing I have a proclivity for.
 
that is a tough one. Let me get back to you on that later...









No really. It is tough. Set a time to do something and concentrate on that. Set deadlines and hope to keep them.

Frankly, I am not good at staying at one task, but if I have a drop dead deadline, it makes it easier as it forces me to get it done on time.

Bill
 
Buk wrote 'I'm like a slug, I don't want to do anything'..but he did. Samuel Beckett wrote 'I can't go on.. I'll go on'. Does this help at all? Sorry if it doesn't, but speaking as a journeyman-writer, it helps me..a bit. Life is short, and when you're dead it's probably much harder to do stuff..
 
and when you're dead it's probably much harder to do stuff..

I think about that every day as a point of spurring. It is honest, yet moot for me personally. The one thing I excel at is academia, which I have too many quandaries with to enjoy the idea of a prospect inside its circle.

If only I was able to grow a full beard like mjp, then I could join a band and have my fill of quim and Trotskyists.
 
Maybe the trick is to abandon the notion of results in the first place. Because the truth is, unless you get really lucky, there won't be many results. If you can get used to doing things with your time that don't really matter to anyone else, then you've got a shot. And, if you can, there really is a sense of freedom that comes with it...just doing things because you want to do them becomes its own kind of reward.
 
i deal with that all the time. my problem when working on stuff for chance press is that doing the same thing for 15 minutes bores me, even if i have TV/podcasts going in the background. our press moves at a glacial pace, as a result. i would get upset with myself about it, but justine reminds me that all the creative stuff is a *hobby* and that if i'm not enjoying it, i shouldn't do it. i just took about 3 weeks off and didn't think about CP at all, and now i'm ready to get working again. still, it will likely be about a year before i'm done with all the projects i committed to, even though when i originally committed to them, i estimated that i'd be done by october (2011). so i guess the moral is, you don't HAVE to do anything - if it brings enjoyment, then do it. save your stress for your day job and release it with your hobby, otherwise you're toast.
 
I think my problem relates to my becoming a student for the sake of obtaining a job in which I could gain a reasonable salary. I'd be much happier broke and working in a factory at this point. Instead, I'm broke and reading Lady Audley's Secret. I probably should have specified that my aversion is in regard to my education and not work (or a hobby). From noticing that many of you have provided some beautiful work in the few years I've browsed this place, it seems to me that you all have your priorities in order (assumption I know). Maybe it's because I'm still young and have a lot left to work out on the internalisation side of things, or maybe my oversized penis wasn't meant for this plain. Thanks for the advice, excuse the histrionics.
 
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You're thinking too much. Stop analyzing. Honestly - I spent way too much time (years, actually) doing the same and have come to understand that defining the "ennui/idleness" doesn't make it go away. It makes it stronger. So kiss it goodbye. I think artists have a certain amount of "laziness" built into them. So it is.

Find whatever it takes to liberate your creative mind and follow it. Be careful with the drugs, of course - they always defeat you in the end. But if there's some pop-psychology paperback or, I don't know.... some New-Age collection of quotations that works for you, let that be the spark. Who cares. You need a nudge - not a lifelong philosophy to follow. Just a spark....

For what it's worth, my own perspective on this was changed forever last year by heart disease. I endured a heart attack, followed by triple bypass, angioplasty, and three stent procedures. Nothing is promised to me and I can now see that in the clearest focus imaginable. We only have so much time and our time wasted on second-guessing and analyzing is futile. Sorry if I sound like a dick or if I'm lecturing. My point is that I was EXACTLY like you for a long, long time - searching and asking others for advice. The answer is in the work itself. Stay focused on it. Let it speak to you. You'll answer soon enough.
 
I'd be much happier broke and working in a factory at this point.

I had similar notions for years and if this is true, then problem solved. But construction, factory work--that shit's hard. Plus, it begs the question--how much money are you hoping to make? Factory work, while tough, is usually a union gig, and still a decent wage. Enough to get by on, anyways, and even raise a family if you're careful. Convincing generations of people that they must 'make it' without actually telling them what 'making it' constitutes is one of many cultural crimes we've wrought.

The truth is, worrying about money is probably harder than just making it in the first place. And no matter how much you have, you'll find it's probably not enough. If you make $75K a year, supposedly that's as happy as you can be--and that would be a pretty damn good living. But no matter the wages, there's always gonna be things we convince ourselves we want...because the wanting is most of it. The insatiable ghost, as they say.

And as 6horse basically said: we either find our priorities, or they are found for us. Life's insistent that way.

If you're young, and still in school, I say fuck it--don't worry. Get through school, enjoy the hell out of it while you're there...because once it's over, there are no more summer vacations, no more fall or spring breaks, no extended semester breaks... The goddamned days just keep coming like locusts. Besides, once you leave school--you'll probably never have to read another book you don't want to, or even write many things you don't feel like writing...at which point it gets easier to decide what it is you really want to say.

*n.b. - I am available for commencement speaking engagements, and high school graduations...
 
Sorry if I sound like a dick or if I'm lecturing.
Not at all, you are very helpful.
Besides, once you leave school--you'll probably never have to read another book you don't want to, or even write many things you don't feel like writing...at which point it gets easier to decide what it is you really want to say.
I would've liked that to be true, I'm in my last year of a Literature degree. Four years and most of it was spent being forced to read Victorian Melodrama. I appreciate the reply.
 
well, maybe you'll be happy to know that, after a scotch last night, i was ready to swear off the workshop (again) and settle into a night of browsing the internet, but after thinking about this thread, i made myself sit down at the work table and bind up a few special editions of this book we released in october.
 
no matter the wages, there's always gonna be things we convince ourselves we want...because the wanting is most of it. The insatiable ghost, as they say.
I used to believe that, until I started making a decent amount of money. For me it wasn't so much a matter of wanting more stuff, it was a matter of, "Hey, we can afford to pay a million dollars for rent now, so we may as well do it!" and the next thing you know you're behind the 8 ball, because while you may be able to afford that million dollar rent, you would have been a lot better off keeping your old half million dollar rent. The costs mysteriously expand to eat up whatever you're taking home, whether you consciously consume more or not.

But I think that's human nature rather than greed. It's why so many people get fat. No one wakes up one day and says, "Now I think I'll just eat to excess and become slovenly!" Well, most people don't, anyway. But we have an old, left over genetic driving force that tells us to put away as much food as we can when we have it, because we may not get to eat during the winter. Problem is, there's no more winter.

No one thinks they have enough. Enough money, enough time, enough love. That is also (modern) human nature. The quest for satisfaction that is always just around the corner. Add to that the fact that people seem to feel entitled to quite a bit these days, and they become angry when they don't get what they feel they "deserve." As noted philosopher Prince once observed, "What's the matter with your life? Is your poverty bringing you down? Is your mailman jerking you 'round? Did he put your million dollar check in someone else's box?"

I realize none of this addresses jew's existential angst, but I don't have any good advice on how to do something. I think that's innate. You either do shit or you don't. But don't feel too bad, most people don't.
 
You either do shit or you don't. But don't feel too bad, most people don't.

Yeah, I will however try to rectify that. No point in being realistic in regards to what I can achieve. Might as well give it a shot. If all else fails, I'm happy being able to have access to everyone elses work ethic productivity. You should definitely mail my broke ass one of your books. Who knows, if my luck changes I might be able to purchase your whole oeuvre.
 

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