Stefan Haflidason

I recently started working through Betty Edward’s workbook, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain since not being able to draw has always been something I’ve been ashamed about and I like her approach (more on that later!).

In the introduction she talks about finding the time to draw, reminding us that our inner voice is expert at finding something to tell us so we can feel ok about not doing something, be it going running or, in this case, drawing.

She then reminds us of a trick we’re all familiar with which she freely admits is ‘stupid’: Faced with the task of drawing your self portrait (exercise #1) you might feel overwhelmed and never start. Tell yourself you’ll sit down and just draw a couple of lines to get things started. Once you’ve got a couple lines down, tell yourself you might as well sketch the outline. Two or three iterations of this and the next thing you know you’ve finished.

When it comes to my work I have good control over my procrastination. I manage to keep it to a minimum and so enjoy good productivity. None of the tricks I might use in my daily work was helping with other activities in my life like drawing however, but Edwards’ ‘stupid’ trick worked for getting me through a painful first exercise. I put down a few lines, then an outline, then decided to do the eyes and nose. At this point I was so embarrassed by what was on the paper I seriously contemplated giving up. I decided that before giving up I’d at least sketch in the other main features. Once I’d done this, somehow it started to look a little less childlike. I soon found myself immersed in the process and after 40 minutes had a picture that I’m now quite proud of.

Now again with my Japanese study I recognised this kind of procrastination. Learning thousands of Japanese characters can seem a daunting, even impossible task; procrastination is rife. My target of 20 per day took a hit recently when I couldn’t study for nearly two days. That meant I should do 40 in one sitting, late on a Sunday, after nearly a full day’s work. Hearing my inner voice tell me that it’d be better not to force it or I won’t memorise them well reminded me of Edwards’ ‘stupid’ trick. I told myself I’d sit down and just do 10; not too daunting. 40 minutes later and I’ve gone through more than 40 and had a good laugh at myself in the process.

It doesn’t matter if you have a PhD. It may mean you can struggle tirelessly on a problem in your field but it doesn’t necessarily translate well into other areas of life (though it often can). What it does give you though is a keen sense of when you’re procrastinating. The first step is recognising that you’re doing it and I think that is half the battle. Once you realise, you can try this trick or whatever else works for you and pretty soon you’ll get so lost in what you’re doing you’ll forget you ever needed to push yourself to start.