How Not To… Procrastinate

For the next in our ‘How Not To…’ series, our author Nigel Oakley ponders on procrastination….

‘What are you doing tonight?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Then go, glue your butt to your chair and crack open your books.’

Having delivered this killer line, Clint Eastwood turns and walks away.

At least, I think it was Clint Eastwood. I’m not sure as he doesn’t play teachers very often. However, was I going to write this article, or procrastinate by doing ‘research’ and look up all the Clint Eastwood films I could find? Something like the above dialogue occurred when a pretty, young, female student approached her professor angling for a date, but presenting as someone needing help with the course he was teaching. Clint (presumably to show us, the viewers, he was not the sort of character to take advantage of young women) brushes her off by telling her the way to get work done is simply to get on with it.

Which is, in the end, how not to procrastinate. Anything can be procrastination, and people may disagree on what that is. Some of you may think I really ought to be able to say which film it was that I (mis-)remembered that scene from. As it is, given I have some serious rewrites and editing to do on my own novel, writing this article is a very good way for me to procrastinate. I can also think of the shopping I need to do, the tidying up – when did I last hoover the lounge? – or finding the money to pay the window cleaners …

Perhaps I should just stop here and get on with editing my novel …

 Over to you - how do you like to procrastinate - or prevent procrastination?