On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.
I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination. My technique is to start small, really small.
My favorite post in the series is #3 Dealing with a Bunch of Crap.
==================
I think I now have a process for reading books I have been putting off: skip ahead and read various parts until something captures my attention.
This gets over one of the great principles of procrastination: the inertia of it; an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. When I start at a book a few times, each time I don't get past the current page sets up more resistance to ever getting off that page. It emphatically does not help that I have good reasons to read the book. Thoreau is to American Nature Writing as Socrates is to Western Philosophy; you may disagree, but you must answer to him. It is embarrassing that I have not read Walden. Embarrassing! If that is not enough, one of the only people who actually reads this blog, the best man at my wedding, is a big fan of the book, so I should read it. But still, each time you abandon a step of a project, even if it is the first step -- read page 1 -- you will encounter more psychic resistance the next time you try again.
I even know what my problem with the first page of Walden has always been: it just comes off sanctimonious. When reading it, I kept having the intrusion of all the criticisms of Thoreau I have heard from people who may or may not have read him, but need to let people know he didn't rough it as much as he claimed.
So I skipped that page and ran into a charming mediation on heat, life and how much shelter and clothes we really need. I fell in love with this passage and have no doubt I'll be able to enjoy Walden and make Thoreau a friend of mine.
I may be able to formulate this into an anti-procrastination principal for reading a classic: try skipping ahead. A book is usually deemed a classic for a reason, so give it more than one chance to show you its value.
Also, remember if you are reading for yourself (and there is really no other good reason for someone past school to be reading) then feel free to skim portions, or skip portions, of books, yes, even classics. So once you realize a book is worth your time, and you find something you like -- which in my case is the philosophical "digressions" -- skip things you are not interested in -- which in my case is most physical descriptions; I can see things in the real world, after all.
Update:
Thoreau in less than a year has grown to be one of my favorite authors. I have plans to read everything he wrote, including looking into purchasing a copy of his journals.
This just goes to show that you, fair reader, you may very well be procrastinating on something that might turn out profoundly changing your life. I clearly was.
