Delaying gratification for my art

I’ve decided that the only way to really motivate myself to write all the time is to reward myself for good behaviour. If I write (or at least sit at my computer/notebook without looking at email or the internet) for an hour then I get half an hour’s knitting as a reward. Yes, it’s come to this – I’m rewarding myself with knitting.

It’s a trick I’m trying to teach my kid right now – get your chores done first and then you can play as much as you like. She gets it. I get it. But as a grown-up it’s sometimes hard to make yourself do the right thing. I know have to do my homework for Dawn’s stand-up class, but it’s the long weekend and I’d rather be knitting on the porch.

I use the reward system with the “you’re going to look like a lazy and incompetent arse if you don’t have a great set at your graduation class and your husband paid for your course and he’s going to feel like it was a waste of money” system. Kind of good cop, bad cop. On myself.

If you’ve read The War of Art you’ll know all about procrastination and the various forms it takes. I just thank God that knitting has taken over from beer or I’d probably be in the hospital right now.

Related posts:

1. What to do when you don’t feel like writing
2. Louis CK and George Carlin podcasts!
3. Everything is stand-up
4. Loving the writing process
5. Dawn was right about the notebook…