Sitting at my desk this morning, once again with the house to myself, I honestly committed myself to spending time editing my book.  Unfortunately, the procrastination monster reared its ugly head, once again, and I found myself doing everything BUT writing! 

An email from my publicist about blog headlines got me thinking.  Why not share the things I use to distract me with other writers so they might either avoid some of them, offer ideas for others, or give me some ideas about how to avoid those irritating little distractions.   So I began my list, albeit woefully incomplete, it’s certainly a start.

Procrastination ideas, episode 1:
1. Open a Publisher’s Clearinghouse email and follow the links to infinity and beyond.
2. Watch hyperthyroid cat sleeping on iCat webcam, making sure to spend at least 10 minutes talking to him and telling him that he’s coming home soon (despite the fact that he cannot either see or hear you!)
3. Dig around in the refrigerator looking for something to eat, despite the fact that you’re not even hungry.
4. Wander around the house petting cats.
5. Rearrange email folders.
6. Read every new Facebook post…twice!
7. Check investment portfolio.
8. Sync Fitbit to see how many steps you’ve taken since you last checked 10 minutes ago.
9. Write a blog post
10. Try to catch up on the 30 day squat challenge, 25 squats at a time.

Number 9 is especially good, because I can always tell myself “But at least I wrote something!”

In fact, the best procrastinations are the ones which can be justified by using advanced rationalization techniques.

1. If I don’t enter I can’t win, but if I enter 10 million times, I just might win $100 bucks again!  (of course, the last time this happened was at least 15 years ago, but that means I’m due, right?)
2. I just miss him so much, and I’m sure that when he looks at the camera, he can feel me talking to him!
3. If I root around long enough, I’ll find something that sounds good and then I won’t need to eat later when I’m in the middle of writing!
4. Research has proven that petting cats is calming and their purrs have all sorts of healing and beneficial effects.  Perhaps, while petting one of them, I’ll get an inspiration for my story line!
5. My email folders need to all be saveable in case my computer gets unhappy, and as some wouldn’t back up, I need to get everything moved to where I can save it for future reference (who knows when I might need that 8 year old email again??)
6. My friends post such interesting stuff.  Not only does it inspire me with blog posting ideas, but real life has such interesting quirks that it makes good reading in fiction too!
7. Gotta see how that Apple stock is doing, pre-split, don’t I??? 
8. How many times will I have to walk back and forth from my office to the kitchen before I hit 10,000 steps??  This is important stuff, you know!
9. Writing is writing.  Even though it’s not my book (and as such, gets me no closer to publication) if I’m writing a blog post, I’m not really procrastinating, right?
10. I really want to finish something I’ve started, and since my daughter was here most of the week, I slacked off of working out and squatting.  If I finish the squat challenge, I can surely finish my editing too!

I look forward to hearing if any of these worked for you, or if you have ideas for even better procrastination ideas and their associated rationalizations. 

But more, I look forward to those ideas to cross procrastinations off of the list and (in the immortal words of Nike)  “Just do it!”

My gratitudes today are:
1. I am grateful for a sense of humor which gets me through those times when I’m just not accomplishing what I think I should.
2. I am grateful that Dylan is coming home tomorrow.
3. I am grateful that I have this blog to keep my writing going, even when it’s just pointless babble.
4. I am grateful for a quiet place to write.
5. I am grateful for dance nights which get me out and around people once in awhile.

Love and light.