Today I’ve had to draw a line.
I’ve drawn a line under a highly productive behaviour that’s been helping me get some useful things done. Why would I do this? The answer is because I have fallen into a nasty behaviour-trap I’m going to call ‘productive’ procrastination.
Getting loads done whilst getting nothing done
It is 15 days since I launched this blog. In that time I have added just two posts to the site (1,2). Now, I recognise that, in general, my output is going to be low. I am writing in my spare time around work, so time is limited. But I still feel that just two posts is really poor. To rub salt into the wound, I have been spending every spare-time minute ‘working’ on the blog. So, given I’ve been putting the effort in, what has been preventing me from writing more content? Well, to be honest, I have.
Thinking back over it now I can see that each time I’ve sat down to work on the blog, I’ve put up little ‘to-do-list’ barriers that have prevented me from actually concentrating on producing good content. I would convince myself there were lots of ‘things’ that needed to ‘get done’ before I could happily concentrate on articles and posts. Whether it was changing the column layout, tweaking my header design or adding a contact page I’ve found all sorts of ways to place little jobs in my way that I felt I just had to complete before I could begin writing.
The interesting question here is why I have carried on like this if writing content is actually what I have wanted to be doing? The answer lies in the ‘productive’ nature of this particular procrastination – productive procrastination. This is where you cannot see that you are procrastinating on a certain task because it is masked by the fact that you are being productive in other directions.
For me, the procrastinating I was doing on writing content was hidden by the productive nature of the other blog-related tasks I was ticking off the list. This is why productive procrastination is particularly insidious. We’re taught from an early age that being productive is a good thing, but in this case it is actually blocking the real aim.
‘Productive procrastination’- you are getting stuff done, just not the stuff that you should be doing.
Re-focus on the necessary
So it occurred to me: what’s important when you are trying to build out a decent blog, with a solid community of readers? What’s gonna drive people to my site? Killer content, that’s what. Not the color of my header, not the layout of my columns. You cannot search based on the ‘dope-ness’ of a site’s layout. Content is king, and that is precisely the thing my productive procrastination has been preventing me from producing. No more! Now I recognise the issue, I’m going to take the great advice I read here, live with the imperfect and, well, just get things out there. Here we go!
What about you?
Have you noticed yourself being really ‘busy’ but not getting important things done?
Do you have tips for breaking through periods of procrastination?
What other damaging habits have you had to overcome to be more productive?
Please feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to hear form you.
Tim…
I’m a master at what I will have to call UNproductive procrastination. My first blog was my learning blog and it took me forever to get it online. Now I’m letting go of that in order to put my focus and passion into my lifestyle development blog at fort2fifty.
The biggest thing that has helped me is to stop worrying about perfection and just DO. I just have to DO the work and write the articles, and in between those times I’ll make small tweaks to the site. My next big movement is to start creating passive income through my site. I’m sure it will take some time but I’m not going to get down on myself for that.
Keep posting content… It is King and if you can comment on other blogs and leave backlinks to yours, that will help with your rankings as well
Good luck and I’ll keep an eye out on you.
Thanks Jason, great to hear from you. I’m going to adopt, for want of a better expression, a ‘just-DO-it’ mindset with respect to content, and, like you suggest, carry out the tweaks to the blog as and when I have the time. Hopefully by being more brutal in terms of getting content out there, I will help reduce my tendency for over editing too! I can always hope at least!
Cheers, Tim
I will quote the great Tyler Durden “Procrastination is Self Destruction!”
Listen to Jason for he has some sound advice.
I too find myself constantly searching for time to write content for my blog. Its no easy task, and at times you may want to throw in the towel. DONT GIVE UP. On my design blog I have the same problem you are having as far as spending more time tweaking the site then working on actual content. The site will eventually be all said and done, but don’t neglect your readers at the same time.
I try to write down ideas that pop into my head on sticky notes during they when I think I have a good article to write and no time to write it. May jot down some notes as well. One method that I am trying is to devote 1 hour each day on working on something content related for my site. Whether is be research for an article or writing itself, its one hour that I know I am one step closer to publishing a post on my page. Give that a try? Time only gets harder once you have children too. I usually put my daughter to bed, then head off to the office to work on my blogging.
Hope this will get some articles shooting out of your site. Thanks for stopping by the RB and I look forward to following your updates. Cheers.
Tyler – lovin the Durden quote! Thanks for the comment, I’m all over jotting down ideas as-and-when they pop into my head, my iphone is jammed with notes and rambling ideas. I haven’t tried dedicating a set amount of time each day to the blog. I will try that over the coming week and let you know the results – thanks for the inspiration!
Listen to these two guys! It is absolutely hard to produce quality content. I can vouch for that since I just launched my blog and have tried to keep up with 3 posts/week. I might be breaking that rule this Monday as I’m traveling.
Let go of all of your lists and spend 30 minutes producing a good article. Next day, build on it and edit it. I start my article one day and finish it the next. It’s a nice balance.
Believe me, I can be the queen of procrastination, but if I can do this, then anyone can. Give yourself the kick! G’luck.
Thanks for the inspiration Moon! I’m going to try that with my next article – mind-dumping the majority of an article tonight and polishing tomorrow. Let’s see how it goes!!
Hey Tim,
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The way I look at it is that you’re going to have to do these things sooner or later. If you don’t have a contact page then no one will be able to send you private messages with questions on the secret to how you made $1000/month writing for eHow (or whatever). I try to find one or two things that I can check off my list to feel better before getting down to business. As long as you’re not switching your header from green, to black, to blue, back to green again, you are being productive and helping to build your brand.
That being said your traffic isn’t going to increase because of a new header color. Keep plugging along and go at your own pace. You sound like you know what’s important.
Keep up the good work!
Reed
Hey Reed,
Thanks for that, you are right, there are certain things that NEED to be done on a blog and others that are more cosmetic. The skill is to know which to do, do them quickly and then worry about the others when you have the free time to do so.
Thanks for the pick-me-up!
Tim, I can definitely relate to that! I had spent way too much time on fiddling around with my blog when I started out. At some point, I simply decided to leave it as ugly as it is and hire a real webdesigner to remake it sometime in the future. Ever since, I’ve just been pumping out content, knowing that the blog design is no longer my issue to solve.
Shane,
Outsourcing!
You’re so right, content is the key to drive traffic, not how pretty my banner is (or isn’t!). My issue with that, is that I was quite keen to learn about building the backend of this site, so I’m kinda tied to the updates and making it better.
Although, having said that, now it at least works I should be concentrating on content.
Cheers
Tim
Good luck to you and your new blog. Looking forward to reading more about passive income.
Thanks Diane, I hope you find the content informative and helpful.