7 Strategies for Dealing with Procrastination and Self-Criticism

Welcome to “Ask the Coach.” As a writing coach, I answer questions from writers about making the work of writing happen, tackling craft, business, and personal questions along the way. (Have a question you’d like answered? Check the details at the end of the article about how to submit one.)

Today I’m responding to a writer about overcoming procrastination and dealing with self-criticism:

First, congratulations on going for a funding opportunity. It sounds like a powerful opportunity to move yourself forward with support.

Second, let’s explore the primary issues you’ve brought to the table: procrastination and self-criticism. It’s an important and timely question; many writers are grappling with social media impacts in our current era, and managing self-criticism and procrastination is always an ongoing project for most writers I encounter.

From what I experience with myself and my clients, self-management is at least 50% of the work of writing.

Here are some thoughts for you about how to shift your experience.

1. Recognize what’s really going on when we procrastinate.

When we’re procrastinating we’re doing it often for more than one reason. But it isn’t usually what it appears to be on the surface. 

Many writers incorrectly label themselves as “lazy” because they’re avoiding writing.

But the truth is something deeper.

We avoid writing because:

1. We’re afraid to step into our big dreams about writing and it’s more “comfortable” to avoid upping our game than it is to do the work.
2. We’re afraid we’re not up to the challenge.
3. We’re incubating the concept.
4. We’re shifting into the right headspace to write.
5. We’re rebelling against our own “shoulds” and expectations about writing.

The tricky part of all this is that certain procrastination behaviors, e.g. social media and binge-watching, soothe the fearful part of ourselves, but don’t necessarily foster the incubation and warming up work we need and want to do. (There are exceptions, in my experience.)

2. Calm the fears by changing the way you talk to yourself.

The fears won’t go away, from what I’ve seen, but we can calm them enough to move forward with writing.

The primary thing to do is change the way you talk to yourself.

First, recognize that the voice of self-criticism is actually the voice of fear, and it’s doing it’s very best to keep you safe from taking risks in the world and potentially exposing yourself to external criticism. In other words, your inner critic is: a) doing the job of criticizing you before anyone else can get there, and b) theoretically keeping you safe from that criticism.

Second, the problem with this — obviously — is that it keeps you from moving ahead with your dreams.

I teach more in-depth about this in my courses, but the core approach I find useful is literally rewriting your fears. Start by writing them down on paper, preferably in longhand. Then, one by one, rewrite each of them from a believable, supportive perspective. If you have trouble with this, pretend you’re doing it for me, or a friend.

Here’s an example: “I can’t do this, it’s too hard” could become something like, “Yes, this is scary, and I’ve never done anything like this before, but I’m going to give myself a real chance to try.”

Here’s the value of this exercise: writing out your fears slows them down and begins to disarm them. Seeing them in black and white often drains them of much of their power. Then, rewriting them gives your brain something else to say when the fears crop up again. And they will. But you’ll be more ready.

3. Reframe the “stepping up” aspect of what you’re asking of yourself.

Of course it’s scary! You’re getting on a roller coaster ride. But that’s just it, a ride. You get to decide if you’re going to scream the whole way or throw your hands up in delight.

Think of it this way: In order to become the writer you are meant to be, you’ll always be leveling up and growing, which means you’ll be continually facing new challenges and opportunities to do and be more. 

Adopting a growth mindset — which says that challenges and growth are good! — allows a lot more room for making mistakes, learning, growing, changing, and evolving, rather than thinking you have to be able to do the work perfectly before you even begin, which is a fixed mindset.

Give yourself the gift of going for it and enjoying the ride, even the hard and scary parts. This is part of shifting your perspective to help the scared part of you see writing as something that might even be — dare we say it — fun.

4. Choose productive procrastination instead.

If you’re finding yourself trying to “warm up” or “get in the mood” or “shift into the right headspace” to write, consider doing things that actually achieve that end. Social media and binge-watching (mostly) don’t.

There are other things that help writers prepare, like:

1. Reading a short story or a book in a genre you enjoy and gets you thinking.
2. Listening to music or watching a specific scene that’s emotionally inspiring to you.
3. Taking a walk, shower, or bath to calm your mind.
4. Tackling a transitional task that helps you feel productive even if it’s not writing-related.
5. Pursuing other activities that foster “sideways drift.”

I recommend these activities before and after one’s writing time, or even as short breaks during your writing day.

5. Relegate social media to non-writing parts of the day.

Social media can be quite stressful. It can also be numbing. While it provides dopamine hits that calm our brains, it doesn’t last long (triggering the need for another “hit”), and isn’t nearly as effective as the kinds of productive procrastination activities I’ve listed above. Sometimes social media is inspiring, depending on how you curate and manage your own feed. But let’s face it, it’s mostly distracting.

You may want to experiment with deleting social media apps (and browsers) from your phone so you can only look at these sites while at a computer, using other apps like Focus or ScreenTime to limit how long you can use them, and keeping your use of social media for the end of your writing day — or at a minimum limiting it to writing breaks. 

Write first, then be social.

6. Save binge-watching as a reward for writing.

You might also consider making your binge-watching a reward for writing. There’s nothing like a satisfying writing day topped off with a favorite show, especially for screenwriters. It’s a great reminder of why we do what we do.

Sometimes, watching something inspiring is useful research and/or inspiring, which is why I’ve been saying mostly above. It can also serve as a much-needed mental break from *everything* right now, so don’t feel guilty about indulging, just aim to choose wisely when you do so.

7. Start small with writing.

Last, but not least, I encourage you to start with small increments of writing time to sneak past the fear-induced procrastination. Tell yourself, “I only have to write for x minutes,” where “x” equals a nice small number of writing minutes that triggers as little fear as possible; usually within the 5 to 15 minutes range.

Something we have to teach ourselves is that we won’t actually be killed by that tiger we’re dreading in the back of our minds if we write. Starting off with small increments gives us evidence that we’re safe, in fact, and can build up to more writing.

Gradually increase your writing time over a few weeks — it’ll go quicker than you think, and you'll be off and running. 

That’s a Wrap

Procrastination, paralysis, perfectionism, and self-criticism are all ways fear manifests in our writing lives. And, there are times when procrastination can be productive, if we choose things that boost our creativity and focus. Choose wisely. 

Warmly,

Jenna

You may also like:

• 10 Ways to Deal with Writer’s Procrastination
• 6 Antidotes for Self-Doubt in Writing
• How Can I Stop Self-Doubt From Stopping Me?
• How Can Writers Deal with Procrastination?

Screenwriters, what challenges and blocks are you wrestling with right now? Share them with me for support and suggestions, take the survey, or email me directly at askthecoach@calledtowrite.com. Look for answers to selected questions in the monthly “Ask the Coach” column on the third Thursday of the month.

Find me on Bluesky @jennaavery.bsky.social.