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15 Ways Every Writer Procrastinates When They’re Feeling Uninspired

by | Jul 8, 2016

Most of us are hard at work, day in and day out, honing and perfecting the art of the written word.

Something else many of us have perfected? The art of procrastination.

You know the feeling. It’s time to sit down to work on your novel, publish that blog post or draft an article for a client, and all of a sudden you can think of a thousand other things you’d rather do besides writing.

Despite your love of writing, tasks like laundry, washing the dishes, snacking and Netflix-bingeing all sound extremely appealing.

Procrastination. It always strikes at the most inopportune time.

We took to social media to ask writers their favorite way to procrastinate their craft. Here’s what they had to say.

1. You decide it’s the perfect time to do a deep clean of your house or apartment. Dishes, laundry, dusting — the works!

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2. Just one more episode of this British drama on Netflix. (And please don’t ask me, “Are you still watching?”)

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3. Procrastisnacking!

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4. You stare at a blank document for a while.

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5. You take a nap.

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6. Purrcatstinating. (Yeah, we went there.)

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7. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube. All day, every day.

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9. You shop online. Amazon Prime, man. Gets you every time.

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9. You read. Everyone needs to read more to be a better writer, right?

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10. You play video games for “research” purposes.

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11. MORE COFFEE, PLEASE.

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12. You brainstorm.

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13. Must. Achieve. Inbox. Zero.

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14. You panic for a bit.

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15. You actually start writing.

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In all seriousness, if you’re struggling with procrastination, check out these five foolproof methods to stop procrastinating and start writing now!

Okay, procrastinate a little bit longer and help us add to this list in the comments. How do YOU procrastinate writing?

Thank you to members of the One Woman Shop and The Write Life Facebook communities for contributing to this post!