Lessons learned: Just do it (and keep doing it!)
The whole purpose of the Get Crafty challenges was to encourage participants (gently, mind you) to stop waiting for the perfect time (whenever that is) or waiting until you have all the right materials, or when you’re feeling creative before embarking on a project. If you find yourself waiting for weeks or months for these things to all come together in a certain way before you can finally create, you will probably continue to wait without ever getting anything done (a feeling I know well!).
Sometimes you just have to say “I’m going to do it, no matter what”, grab the supplies you need and get to it. Just as important as doing it is making sure you keep doing it: it’s easy to start things and not finish them, or keep restarting them. These are all traits of a good procrastinator. Many times while making the cards, I wanted to start all over and I really forced myself to work with what I had: if I did something that I didn’t like, I was more likely to cut the offending portion away, or cover it up creatively, or try to convert it into something else rather than start over from scratch. By making your brain work with what you have, rather than giving yourself a clean slate every time, you not only curb your procrastination and reduce the time wasted, but you might stimulate more creativeness in the process by turning something you’d have ordinarily considered junk into something beautiful.
Other ways that you can keep a project going, and prevent yourself from procrastinating on it are:
- gather all the tools and supplies you need ahead of time so you don’t have to keep getting up to get things
- divide your project into pieces and give yourself a deadline for each piece
- tell a friend or family member of your goal and ask them to gently inquire how you’re doing with your plan to complete or reach it.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Great advice Jummy!!
I’m one of those who if I attach something and then it’s not “right” will do something else to cover it up…your eye knows when it’s “right” and when it still needs “tuning up”.