The Power of Starting

From one procrastinator to another

Push the button

I had intended to write and publish this blog last Tuesday, but here we are, almost a week later. I mean, I started with my usual routine when writing blogs: pick the topic, write out the headlines and subheadlines, write down a few bullet points.

That was it! I closed my journal and didn’t open it back up till Friday; I added more pointers, then I closed it again — back in my drawer. At least I started, right? Well, that’s my style as a habitual procrastinator.

Procrastination is the gap between intention and action. Recently, I’ve been optimising my willpower to fill that gaping hole in my consciousness where procrastination resides.

I’m a deep-thinker, perhaps an over-thinker. While that is a great trait to have as a creative, by the time I get to actualising my ideas, the prolonged cognitive activity that I subject myself to inevitably leads to mental fatigue. I’m like a marathon runner doing all the sprinting in the first lap.

I set my brain into overload, processing information, dissecting theories, formulating ideas. My phone is full of notes; my Mac is full of powerpoints with a single intro slide for various ideas, some dating back as 2005.

There is a saying that a computer is designed like the human mind;