Meet Your Writing Deadline by Avoiding These 10 Procrastination Traps

by Tammy Karasek @TickledPinkTam

I might have mastered a new skill I want to share with my fellow writers this month—the deadline procrastination dance. 

This August I can now say I have a book contract. With that contract came a deadline set by the publisher. When I signed the contract, three months seemed far, far away. No problem. I puffed my chest out and knew I had this without any concern I wouldn’t make the deadline. 

Part of May I would be away a week to teach, so I wrote out my list of what I wanted to accomplish for my book before August first. My deadline was August fifteenth, but I was confident I would slay that date. 

June arrived and my Virtual Assistant and Launch work arrived and grew. I’ve got this, I boasted. I had everything scheduled in my day planner. I’m right on schedule. 

Until the day that turned into four that no matter what I did, I felt as if I was on the proverbial treadmill. On a fast run, but I never arrived. 

Then I panicked. 

What if I can’t finish this book before my August first date. Or the real deadline of the fifteenth. 

What if I’m not supposed to write. My idea was great, but what if I can’t finish the blasted book. Then, of course, the words now wouldn’t come. How could this be? The book is about what I do every week—manage launch teams. There I sat and wondered how would I write the instructions to do what I do in my sleep. Will they understand it? Will I miss a step and not catch it, and then they’re confused?

Rather than call on my writer friends for prayer, I decided I could handle it myself and I would do what needed to be done until I was finished with the book. 

10 Procrastination Traps I Fell Into When Writing

1. With my fingers in a hover over my keyboard, I noticed a hang nail or two. And a chipped corner on my nail. If I go fix those, I’ll be able to concentrate and type. Yeah, that would do it. Off I went.

2. All done, I tossed the clippers and file back into the drawer. But I noticed the polishes had all fallen over. Better make sure none of them are leaking. Might as well go through them and pitch the old ones and stand the others back up. Nice. 

3. Oh, I forgot I bought this color of pink, maybe if I polish them, I would have happy fingers flying over my keyboard. So, I do. Beautiful! But can’t type yet, they’re still wet. 

4. Phone rang. Oh, friend I haven’t talked to in a while. Perfect, speaker phone while the nails dry. Then I’ll get back to work. 

5. Great visit, she had lots to share. Longer talk than I should have. Now hubby’s hungry. 

6. Go out to dinner, cause, ahem—nails freshly done. 

7. Sigh, ate late, too tired to sit at my keyboard. Vow to get up early and hit the computer and crank out a great word count. 

8. Early morning thunderstorm with a little internet outage off and on for most of the day. Uh oh. 

9. Next day, a couple appointments out and they kill the day. But there’s tomorrow. 

10. It’s now Saturday, beautiful day and the pull to be outside is strong. Now what?

How I Finally Finished Writing My Book

I stopped and prayed. I asked God to sit with me while I wrote. I asked him to take away any distractions and give me the clarity to start typing on my keyboard and don’t stop until I can’t see any more for the day. I prayed for him to remove my perfectionist way to want this first draft to be more like the fifth. 

Then the peace rose within me and I was reminded of the saying that goes “If God has called you to it, He will equip you for it.” And I felt a strong urge to grab my laptop and meet God out on my screened porch to enjoy the beautiful day and get my words down. 

He answered. I wrote more than half the book that day. 

I’m not kidding about that particular week’s procrastination. I’d love to know how you have managed to get your head back into your writing when the doubts and life’s circumstances seem to keep you from your keyboard? Please share below, I have interest for another book from a publisher—I may need to use your idea!

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Meet Your Writing Deadline by Avoiding These 10 Procrastination Traps from author @TickledPinkTam on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, drives her passion to encourage and inspire others and give them The Reason to smile. She’s gone from down and defeated to living a “Tickled Pink” life as she believes there’s always a giggle wanting to come out! A writer of Romance—with a splash of sass. She’s also The Launch Team Geek helping authors launch their books and also a Virtual Assistant for several best-selling authors. She is now under contract for her book on Launch Teams due to release Fall 2023. Her work was also published in a Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments. She’s also the Social Media Manager for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Founding President and current Vice-President of ACFW Upstate SC, and Founding President of Word Weavers Upstate SC. She’s a writing team member for The Write Conversation Blog, Novel Academy, MBT Monday Devotions, The Write Editing and more. Connect with Tammy at HTTPS://WWW.TAMMYKARASEK.COM.