I have to be honest. Although I know I said that the reason
I haven't been able to do anything productive with this blog for the past few
days was because of my cousins from Canada. Well the truth is, I have been
stricken with a bad case of procrastination. They say admittance is the first
step to recovery, so there I said it.
Fortunately there are easy ways to overcome this
affliction. So if you are constantly finding yourself on the same situations
like I do, then I guess you might find it helpful to know the things that have worked for me as it might work
for you too as it did for me.
Music and writing as I said before are my two most favorite
things to do. Sadly I can't say I have't been productive on either one for the
longest time as I have been waste my time, you guessed it, procrastinating.
Personally the reason for my procrastination all comes down to three things.
Lack of motivation, distraction and the fear of failing.
It's fair to ask why I don't have enough motivation to do
things that I love. When I come to think about it. Having no clear sense of
achievement after making music (that nobody else except me will ever get to
hear) for example, it is easy to forget why I am doing it in the first place.
Yes it may not pay the bills, and yes it may not earn me a living. But I have failed to
remember is that these are not the reasons that I started making
music in the first place. I made music because I loved to, simple. We must learn not
to forget why we started doing the things that we do. Or else we will lose that
spark that started the flame, and burn out in the end.
In an age where our attention spans are getting smaller by
the minute. It's easy lose focus with the tasks at hand and be distracted. With
every kind of distractions available on the internet, sometimes one cant help
but feel to be at the mercy of social media sites and the likes. I myself am
guilty of not being to resist from checking my Facebook notifications every 30
minutes. You see some interesting link on your news feeds one minute and you end
up finding yourself spending the past 2hours looking through videos of laser
light show installations on youtube. To combat this, I have made a separate user
account with only my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and all the browser links
deleted and if possible uninstalled. If I can afford it I'm even planning on
having a separate internet free computer in the future. The important thing is
we must always remember to forget or just eliminate all the things that
distracts us from doing the things that we need to do.
"Perfect is the enemy of good" according to Voltaire. A
quote that I could also apply to myself. I have been justifying my fear of
failing or falling short of what others are doing with my own procrastination. I
tell myself that's its alright that I haven't done anything since it will never
be as good as what the others have already done are doing in the first place. So
why bother? I thank God that I have come to realize that each of us are special
in our ways. We have different upbringings, backgrounds and gene pools etc. The
act of comparing ourselves to others is meaningless as it will only lead to
nothing. So with this in mind. I am thinking of doing 1 beat day for 30 day
upload it to soundcloud for all the world to hear. I will impose a limit of 2
hours per piece as to free myself from thinking to much and end up scrapping it.
I will have to keep in mind that whatever material comes out will never be a
failure but a stepping stone.
I have come to find that motivation can be found
amongst the simplest of things. I
only have to keep focus on my goals and away from the evils of distraction. I
should always remember to keep on doing my own thing and
never fall prey in to comparing myself to
what others are doing as there is nothing worse than doing nothing. I admit that
all of these things I have pointed may not apply to everyone.
The one thing about procrastination is that there is nothing more
effective way to cure it other than by doing something.
So do something, anything. At least just try. Take it one step at time.
Heck I didn’t even expect to write a post this long when I started. Go.
