Two out of three isn’t bad, although this is yet another week where I totally could have accomplished all three goals if I would have just kicked myself into gear on the writing and gotten it done. I did give it priority over the brochure design, but instead of working on that project when I didn’t feel like writing, I just goofed off more.

The good news is I got my 2500 words in, and I did finally kick myself into high gear, by using an old friend: the timer.

My friend, the timer

I’ve also been following Dean Wesley Smith’s progress as he chronicles ghost-writing a novel in ten days. Writers, this is very worth checking out, to see how a seasoned pro does it! He takes plenty of breaks, and does lots of other stuff too – but when he writes, he sits in the chair, gets the words down, and doesn’t slack. This evening, I had another 800 words to reach my weekly goal of a measly 2500 words (Mr. Smith writes over 7k/day), so I told myself, if he writes 1000 words in an hour, I should at least be able to get these 800 words in about the same amount of time (I’ve also timed myself before, so I know I can). I also remembered what Flylady says: “You can do anything for fifteen minutes.” Well, I made it a little easier and set the timer for ten minutes. (I use the Windows 7 Widget, in case anyone’s curious.)

When it went off, my first thought was that I’d set it for one minute instead. But then I looked at what I’d written, and I’d gotten over 200 words down! So yes, I did get those last 800 down in less than an hour.

Here’s the quick rundown of this week’s progress:

• Design flyer for relative’s small business – started, but not much done
• Writing: 2,500 words – Done!
• Fitness: 4 workouts – Done! Actually, I went one better and did five. Back to my old routine!

So this week, the goals remain pretty much the same, except that the story will be done in less than 2500 words.

• Design flyer for relative’s small business
• Writing: finish short story
• Fitness: 5 workouts

What about you – do you have trouble with procrastination sometimes? What do you do to get over it? Please share – I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.