Friends of mine introduced me to the concept of “productive procrastination”— doing work but not doing work you should be doing. It’s a scourge for writers.

I say this from personal experience. Too often I’ve counted as “productive” activities that were optional. They should have been on the bottom of my list. I’ve diagnosed six forms of productive procrastination that can bog down writers—and six remedies:

1. Writing before you’re ready. This is thrilling—writing with a burst of energy. But you risk putting down thoughts before they mature, and in turn revising so much you lose confidence in what you’re saying.

            Remedy: If you’re fired up to start writing before your thoughts are ready, journal instead. By trying out many approaches, you won’t get married to flawed wording.

2. Researching too much. Digging endlessly for perfect examples and proof points—even before you’ve crystallized your messages.

            Remedy: Inventory your research needs for each chapter. Dig up only enough material to fill each content bucket. If you research until you’re overstocked, you have to dump too much inventory.

3. Not sticking with your copyfit. Publishers contract for a fixed word count (aka “copyfit”). You may rationalize: “I’ll write what needs to be said and worry about length later.” Problem is, it’s murder to remove excess later.

            Remedy: Divide each chapter into parts. Assign a number of words to each. Write to this “fit.” If you run over, you have a wordcount goal for tightening up.

4. Writing digressions. Indulging in digressions and elaborating examples is fun. Problem is, you may put secondary material in line before primary—and slight the primary.

            Remedy: Make a policy of refining main messages first. If you can’t articulate them, see point 1 and start journaling.

5. Checking facts before finishing the draft. When you hit energy lows during writing, it’s tempting to take a break and research minor facts. Problem is, you risk losing momentum.

            Remedy: Close your browser! Unless you need a detail to keep writing, keep your focus on your outline. Fill in facts later.

6. Striving for perfect. We all want to put down one great sentence after another. But when you edit heavily during drafts, you may be wasting your time. You may throw out a lot of “perfected” text later.

            Remedy: Delay your quest for perfection until editing. Obsessing early wastes time. Worse, you’ll burden your writing with overwrought phrases.

Consider that if you spend 2,000 hours writing a book manuscript, and you spend, say, 10 percent spinning your verbal wheels, that’s 200 hours of time, five working weeks! Think now how you could shave time off your process on the journey to publication.

[Revised January 2020. Originally published September 21, 2015]