Today, I have come to realize how much of a procrastinator I have become. I thought I would take a minute to understand why I am procrastinating at everything so that I can improve my work ethic. Everything I have started was something I was really excited about at one time, and now it has lost its path. This is not the first time I have tried something then slowly stopped doing it after a while. However, everything I am working on I want to see through and keep working on it. Here is a list of what I am working on, why I’ve been procrastinating, and how I’ll change. Hopefully this will help you out too.

Blog

Yes, I am still blogging, but it’s not as often as when I began. I already knew I had unrealistic expectations when I was writing every day, but at that point I had a lot of ideas to write about. I was also very consistent… I started writing at 10:00am every day, then I started writing 3-5 times per week at the same time. Then I lost track of days and times so I started writing when I remembered at whatever time during the week, and this is where I started to really procrastinate.

When I started blogging, I wanted to share my self-improvement experience since it’s something I’ve always been interested in. It’s satisfying to potentially help someone else who is struggling with something, and create a supportive environment. However, I’ve always thought in the back of my mind how cool it would be to make some side cash from a hobby I am passionate about.

Of course, after doing research about how to monetize a blog, it started to feel a bit daunting. A huge factor in becoming a successful blogger is having a niche to be able to easily find sponsors, but I didn’t feel like I had a specific niche. There are people who write about recipes, nutrition, fitness, gardening, starting an online business – all very specific categories. Some people even begin selling consultations or online courses for their expertise. The more I looked into it, the more fearful I became about my blog not being successful.

I forgot why I started blogging in the first place. It slows down my thoughts to make sense of them, it allows me to be creative, and I can give my ideas to the world as well as read other blogs to learn something new. I have realized I fear that I am doing it wrong. I am learning along the way, but not knowing if I’m doing it correctly in order to monetize it sooner rather than later is driving me crazy. I never knew how much there still is to learn about the internet. It’s not as simple as I thought it was.

The reason I am procrastinating at writing blogs is because I am fearing failure and the reward seems very far away if it will be rewarded at all. I will have to change my mindset about it to stop procrastinating. Here are a few solutions: I will aim to learn something new about blogging every time I write; I will make a new goal to only write 3-4 times per week; and I will make sure I read and follow other blogs that will inspire me.

YouTube

One day, I asked my boyfriend to do a beer review with me and make a video. I’ve always wanted to learn how to make videos, and it was a different way to be creative. After I began, I needed to make it my own channel rather than rely on my boyfriend for help. I figured I couldn’t just make my channel about reviewing beer by myself, so I channeled my inner actress and wanted to make people laugh by doing skits.

I came up with a long list of video ideas, and I was creating a video once a week. It would be finished a few days before it went public on YouTube, so it was a stress-free hobby. Now, I am procrastinating and creating the video the same day that it needs to be posted, which isn’t a very relaxing feeling. I somehow have still posted every Tuesday at 5pm, but I can tell my creative juices are lacking.

I think there are a few factors here that are causing me to procrastinate. I have posted several videos of my comedy skits, but now the opinions of others are starting to flow. Not only the number of views and likes, but just what other people find funny or not. Some people will tell me their favourite videos, or favourite part of a video, so then I find myself over-analyzing everything. I have truly come to appreciate big YouTubers who have managed to work towards a huge following and come out with videos every single week.

Of course, the thought of this hobby also being monetized has crossed my mind, because who wouldn’t want to be paid for doing what they love? At least YouTube gives you a goal to reach in order to be able to monetize (1000 subscribers and 4000 watched hours), so I just need to keep improving my videos and learning about how to make them entertaining the entire time (people have short attention spans these days). I am even starting to second-guess my genre of videos (skits) so that causes procrastination as well. Maybe I should be making videos on ice coffee? Or hair? Or horoscopes??? I am just trying to stick to what my authentic self enjoys doing, and leave it at that.

To change my mindset for this, I first need to take other people’s opinions and number of views lightly. Art will always be subjective, and it can be surprising sometimes what does well and what doesn’t. I am also learning more about the power of social media, as I have been ignoring it for so long. I never enjoyed being super involved in social media, but it turns out it’s a huge factor in being successful at doing work online.

Rather than second guessing my video ideas, I’m just going to film and edit it without waiting an entire week of doubting myself.

Podcast

I started my podcast in order to have a platform to speak with other people and learn from them. I enjoy learning from other people and talking things through. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made it a bit difficult to get it started since I have to record podcasts through low quality sound through zoom. Also, I have found out a lot of people are scared to be recorded and to talk about themselves.

This is another area where I am unsure of the niche I want to have. I wanted to talk about the journey of breaking free from societal norms because it’s something I struggle with, but it’s hard to find people who feel the same why I do. This hobby might not be as consistent, but it’s something I am still interested in pursuing eventually.

Further Solutions to Overcome Procrastination

It’s important to recognize the reason why you enjoy whatever it is that you are procrastinating on, and to stop yourself from overthinking everything. Sticking to a routine is definitely a huge part of being productive, so planning out your days will help overcome procrastination. Also, remembering that all of these hobbies are more productive than other hobbies such as playing video games or watching TV.

I think it’s important for all of us to stop and find the reasons why we are procrastinating at something, because I truly think it frees us to be more creative and more productive. It’s never a good feeling to feel like something is weighing you down, so by finding solutions to motivate us again, it will lift the weight right off of our shoulders.