I’ve always been a bit of a procrastinator. So much so that my Mother used to call me ‘Last Minute Lucy.’ Thankfully I was a strong enough student that I could get away with doing my homework on the 45 minute bus ride to school and completing big projects the night before they were due. Then in art college I was balancing a full course load and two or three jobs, so everything always felt last minute anyway. Besides, pulling all nighters in the darkroom was considered cool, so my procrastination habit paid in social dividends.
On the other hand I am also an extremely organized person. I make lists, like things to be in their place, and can’t stand visual clutter. This side also plays into my procrastination tendencies as it means that I can easily find activities to keep me busy and not do the task I should be doing.
Kate isn’t a very big boat.
We have the main cabin which is open plan and encompasses the galley, the sitting area, the dining area, and nav station AKA my desk. And then we have forward vee berth which includes the head and closet area. What we don’t have is a door between the two spaces. This means while sitting at my desk I can see ALL the clutter. ALL the distractions. ALL the things calling me to walk away from the writing that’s not going as fast as I expect to.
Years I ago I realized the low productivity at my writing desk wasn’t due to writers block but resistance. Which is just a new way to say procrastination. And one of the tricks I found to help my with that resistance was a Sunday reset.
Sunday is my day to do all the things that might tempt me to leave my desk so that I have no excuse to put off what I should be doing – writing.
I start by changing the sheets and sorting the laundry, ready to be taken ashore either later that day or whenever one of us are heading that way. The sight of a neatly made bunk and prospect of getting to curl up in clean sheets at the end of the day is calming for me. (And yes, I may have issues from my years working as a stewardess on super yachts and ironing sheets onto the beds to make everything perfect.)
Next I tidy the closet/drawer area next to the bunk. Since it has been so hot recently we are both prone to changing a few times a day, which means that anything damp gets left out to dry before being re-worn or put in the hamper. This means there always seems to be a shirt or pair of shorts or sun cover-up that didn’t make it back into the three drawers, one tiny cupboard, or small hanging cupboard that Steve and I share for clothes storage.
The head gets a deep clean so at least for a few hours the sink doesn’t have toothpaste splatter and there isn’t water spots on the black Plexiglas countertop. Seriously, who puts black counters in a wet head?
By the time I’ve reached the main cabin I can already feel some of that resistance starting to let go.
Which means a general straighten and tidy, a quick wipe of surfaces and speedy vacuum of the floor will get me to where I really want to be – the galley.
I can find a multitude of excuses to leave my writing desk for the galley.
Once there I can keep myself busy for hours. So Sunday is the day that I not only tidy things up but restock. Freshly grinding coffee for the week, refilling the small oil and sauce bottles that is handy to the stove, tidying the dry stores area that got hastily put away during mid-week cooking.
Sunday is also the day that I will throw on a chicken stock, and make a batch of granola, and slice up some red onions or a pineapple to make a jar of quick fridge pickles. And while those are getting put in the fridge I’ll usually do a quick inventory of what needs to be used up ASAP and what leftovers might be on their last legs in order to plan a few meals for the upcoming week. All along I have a scrap of paper and a pen handy where I start a grocery list and jot down reminders for myself about tasks that I need to complete that week.
This is a kind of mental tidying up for me.
Sometimes the lists make it onto the bulletin board or into my wallet when I go into town to shop. Often times they get forgotten on the table or between the pages of a notebook somewhere. I’ve learned that the point of my lists isn’t always about checking them off later. Instead, they are a way to download of all the clutter in my head that is getting in the way of me concentrating on my writing.
On Monday morning there is still resistance.
That sluggish feeling at the back of my brain that tells me that scrolling through Instagram for just another 5 minutes is ok. Or that it doesn’t matter if I get a blog post up this week because this isn’t REAL writing and no one reads it anyway. Or that I haven’t flossed my teeth properly in a while and maybe I should just take a few minutes to do that because dental health is very important.
Sometimes I get up and floss or let myself fall into doom scrolling for another 10 minutes. But I also make a deal with myself that at 0830 I will have set up my desk and will have my butt in the chair and my headphones on and I will be writing. OK, I will be staring at the screen. Because the only way to battle resistance is to show up to do the thing.
Of course, this isn’t a foolproof strategy.
Some Sundays are decidedly better spent having a beer with friends, or dealing with an unexpected fuel leak, or going on an adventure. Sometimes my reset happens on Monday instead. Sometimes it doesn’t happen and everything seems to feel a little off kilter, a little bit harder. Sometimes I end up writing a blog post reminding myself how I can get back on track. (And hope it is of some value to someone who reads it.)
If you’ve worked as long as me on the habit of procrastinating, its gonna take a while to find a work around that resistance. So, when I don’t get as much writing done one day as I’d like, or like some days I don’t get any done at all, I still show up the next day and start again. Because although showing up might feel like the hardest part, you only have to take one step to get moving in the right direction.
Love,
H&S
