Friday, April 20, 2007

Four Reasons not to Procrastinate in Writing

Procrastinate vb to put off usually habitually doing something that should be done syn. Dawdle, delay
- as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

For some reason, this week I have been an expert at this most unfortunate condition called procrastination. At this very moment, as I sit here and write a post for my blog, I should be completing a writing assignment that is due today. I am dawdling and delaying until the very last moment. And it’s no good!

Fortunately, most of the time I am not one to procrastinate and that’s a good thing because when you wait until the last minute it usually shows in your writing. Here are four reasons not to do as I am doing right now.

(1) Rushed writing is not good writing. When you are in a hurry it makes it much more difficult to catch the little errors (spelling and punctuation) that can ruin your credibility as a writer.

(2) As a writer it is always good to let your writing “rest” for at least a day or two to enable you to read your paper with fresh eyes. Your mind is not set on reading it just the way you wrote it, allowing critical changes to be made that could make your article much better. When you put it off until the last moment, it’s much harder to do this.

(3) You risk disappointing your client. If you are waiting until the very last moment and your article is not the quality expected of you, your client is not going to be 100% satisfied with your work. You could even lose him as a client.

(4) You risk disappointing yourself. You feel anxious and apprehensive with deadlines looming over your head and you feel badly knowing that had you not put it off you could have done a much better job.

Wow! Four convincing reasons for me to end this post right now and go finish my article. What am I still doing here?

Take care and may you have a wonderful weekend!

5 comments:

Harmony said...

A case of do as I say, not as I do :)
Great advice & tips Lisa.

Lisa Vella said...

LOL! Definitely! But I talked myself right out of putting it off!

Have a nice weekend!

Lisa

Anonymous said...

You make some excellent points!!! I enjoyed reading this.

Lisa Vella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisa Vella said...

Laura,

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for visiting my blog!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Lisa Vella