Some problems with the procrastination literature

Like most people who want to become more effective, I goof off by reading books and blog posts about how to stop wasting so much time.

And you can spend a lot of time doing that, since there are entire blogs devoted to the topic, and a vast library of books.

I am currently in a situation where I have a lot of work in addition to my writing work, and am trying to keep up with all of it, so I'm thinking about how much waste there is in even a productive day. As I've said before, I am not much like the authors of these books ("...and then, as head of Sales, I achieved our first $10 million sales year...." "...and after that, I became the first person to kayak across the Sahara..." etc.) I'm just trying to get a little more writing done, not waste time on irrelevant stuff, and make sure I still have some fun.

One thing these books seem to shy away from is the simple "too boring" problem. What if the task you need to accomplish is really dull? It's necessary, it will take a long time, and it is mind-numbing. OK, maybe you should outsource it to some place in the world with a lower salary rate than yours. This may be a solution for some people, but when the task is, for example, moving handwritten manuscript comments into the electronic version with all the other comments, I'm not sure that's the solution. This is an example of a dull job that requires specific skill and knowledge. There are many such, and most of us have them in our task list.

There are techniques to make it easier, of course--break the task down into small sections, for example. But, ultimately, it is not your self-worth or fear of success that are the stumbling blocks that you need to overcome. It's the task itself.

I guess one meta-solution is to work to make sure your life has a minimum of such tasks. And that's a worthy ambition. I could order commenters to make all their comments in Word. But people work best when they work the way they prefer, and if a commenter likes to sit in an easy chair and make comments with a blue pen on a printed manuscript, that's their call.

Anyway, enough goofing off. I actually do two time-sensitive important tasks today before people come over for dinner, and I suppose I should do them. Neither is boring, but both require some specific performance quality on my part, and a fair amount of time.

Have a good Labor Day weekend.