My favorite ways to procrastinate

Last week I mentioned that writers are neurotic. It's the truth. We have more foibles and superstitions than baseball players (but cleaner laundry. Probably).
Anyway, one of the things we ALL do is procrastinate. We could be doing it to put off writing THE END on a project (my current procrastination). It could be to put off starting a new project. Or maybe the middle of the book is driving us nuts and won't cooperate, so why not procrastinate?
Yep, however many words there are in any given project, there is an equal number of ways and reasons to procrastinate writing.
Oh, eventually it'll get done. Probably. There's a great likelihood. Mostly.
But for now, when you need that little writing "time out", I thought I would share some of my favorite ways to not be writing until the last possible second:

Come on B7. BINGO, damn it, BINGO!

1. Video Bingo. This is a new one for me. I found www.gsn.com on both my computer and my iPhone. Tragic. Now I have TWO ways to procrastinate. GSN has all sorts of fun games like slots and video poker but my absolute favorite is Video Bingo. You don't win anything (except the glory of yelling Bingo!) but I find the excitement of begging the uncaring electronic unit for B7 for the win. It usually goes something like this: "One number," I'll mutter. "One number for a double bingo. There are 16 numbers left to call. Surely I'll get it. Come on. One number and I score 10,000 tokens. Do you know how many cards that is? That's three games of three 1,000 token cards with 1,000 left over. Come ON! B7! B7! Wait, that's B3. Not what I need. Oh, G57. I see, you're taunting me now. Whatcha gonna do next? Throw me I17? Oh. No. You. Didn't. I hate this game. So uncool. Come on, B7. Wait a second. O69? Bingo!! Yes!!!" And so it goes... It can get disturbing.

2. Sorting. I know. You're thinking "What the hell is she talking about?" But seriously, sorting is a great time waster. Especially if you have multiple items of multiple items. I, for one, am well known for my office supply fetish. It's a sickness and no, I don't plan on seeking therapy for it. I have so many pens, notebooks, journals, highlighters, paper clips and index cards that I could open my own storefront and probably never run out. So, when I'm feeling peckish about where the book is going and I need to "think" (by the way, this is a code word for procrastinate, don't let anyone tell you different) I will pull out my office supply apocalypse box and start sorting. First, I sort out the above mentioned supplies from each other. I now have lots of lovely piles. Then I start channeling the Hogwarts Sorting Hat (without the royalties, more's the pity) and sort into smaller piles. The pens get sorted by ink type (gel or roller or ballpoint) then by click or cap then by ink color. If I'm feeling REALLY procrastinate-y I will sort them by barrel color. This can get even deeper because then I have to do it all over again. Next, I'll move on to the notebooks. Color, size, wide ruled, narrow ruled... you get the drift. And so on and so forth. When I'm done, it all goes back in the box for another day. Hey, I never said it was logical. It's procrastinating for Pete's Sake!

3. Investigation Discovery aka Discovery ID. Dude, they even have their own hash tag on Twitter #IDAddict) There are only a few shows that I won't watch. I love 'em all. I'm always intrigued by just how dumb criminals can be but also by how incredibly smart and scary they can be. Plus, I'm always looking for new ideas and what better place than an entire network devoted to crime?! Hm, so would this count as research and not procrastination? I think I have a good case for that.

4. Jeopardy! This is a great procrastination vehicle because it's got a time limit. It's only 24 minutes long (less if you have a DVR and can skip commercials). Plus, it makes me feel smarter or dumber, depending on how well I do in the categories. I usually rock baseball and music ones. Math and Geography are my Achilles Heel(s).

Ah, the smell of fresh laundry.

5. Laundry. I know what you're thinking. WHAT? Are you nuts? But not really. It's kind of like sorting as mentioned above except I get the added benefit of clean clothes. AND I get to use my handy dandy Flip N Fold. If you don't have one of those, get one. They are freaking awesome. They fold shirts, pants and towels quickly but they also smoosh them down to a smaller size which means more clothes fit in the drawer which means you can buy more clothes which leads to another fabulous procrastination technique - shopping!

There you have it! Five fun ways to procrastinate. But do not abuse these methods or that book will never get written. During the final pages of Empowered [Sexual Magic 3] I admit to using Method #1 a lot. A LOT, A LOT. But the book came together and will be available in two short days. So, procrastination, when used for good, can really help. It's just a matter of knowing when to say when.

Happy reading!

Jennifer