Free for three days

Guess who procrastinated on sharing this with you…? I did. My excuse is that National Poetry Month has my focus now, but the real reason is that I didn’t want to bother people. They might not be interested in reading about my free poetry book just because it’s written by someone who also writes about procrastination.

Strange how a simple deadline makes all the difference. I still don’t want to bother people, but now that it’s only free for another 3 hours and 20 minutes (at least in my time zone) my perspective changed into: “but people might actually want to know that”.

All procrastinators know the magic a deadline can work I think. But in case you need it as a tip:

What ‘thing’ can you create a deadline around to help you get it done, or help ypu get it done sooner?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X2Z54FV

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Book launch More than meets the I

Do not procrastinate on… setting a launch date! I will write about that later. For now the joyous message is: We have a date! There will be a party! You are invited!

Unassorted stories

Finally! Monday November 2nd, at 20h Dutch time (convert to your time here) we will PARTY! You’re invited 🙂 We’re going to celebrate with you that our book is going live on Amazon! And we want to show how beautiful it is You’ll get to see all the photographs in the coffee table book version. Angela will read some of the poems (requests are welcome), you can ask questions… There’s 40 minutes of time to be together and go ‘wow’

Let me know if you want to be sent be the login details for the party. It will not be recorded. It will probably be on Zoom, but I’m checking different options as well.

A special message for my Introverted friends: feel free to leave your camera off or anything else that makes you feel comfortable in what we hope will be a gathering of more than just my…

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Anti-procrastination sale

Or… how to not procrastinate on selling your books – by creating a discount.

I’m experimenting with the promotions feature on Google Play books today. I don’t like advertising, so I was searching for different ways to promote From do it Later to Do it Now in Ten Days – my anti-procrastination workbook that a friend described as “too short and practical to procrastinate on”.

Takes you to the book

• Day 1 – 0,99
• Day 2 – 1,99
• Day 3 – 2,99
• Day 4 – 3,99
• Day 5 – 4,99
• Day 6 – 5,99
• Day 7 – 6,99
• Day 8 – 7,99
• Day 9 – 8,99

From hurdle to anti-procrastination tip

My book has been in the Google Play Store for a while now, and I never figured out how I could promote it. Not because I didn’t have the time, just because I didn’t feel like it.I realised today that I’ve simply been procrastinating on it, for reasons that are quite common. I’ve listed the main ones here, and added a tip:

• As long as it’s unknown, I won’t use it -> Plan a test/an experiment sooner rather than later.
• Limiting thoughts: “It’s probably difficult“-> You won’t know until you try (and in this case it wasn’t)
• “I don’t know the right price” -> That can be part of the experiment. I decided to create 9 different days of discount, with an increasing price level. Day 1 = 0,99, day 2 = 1,99, etc. Bonus: it saves people from thinking too much. Today is cheaper than tomorrow.

Things I learned about Google Play while I was figuring this out

1. I always forget where I can log in as an author on Google Play. It’s here.
2. In the analytics and reports page, you can’t see your analytics unless you download them. Unlike Amazon, that shows you graphs etc. of your sales almost live.
3. The promotions page is easy to figure out, even when it says you need a to upload a CVS file. They provide a template and a filled out sample, so it doesn’t need much thinking.
4. When you click through the pages you may find new options you’ve never noticed before. I don’t have a clue where I found that QR-code I’ve just cut and pasted, but it’s a nice feature 🙂

The sale starts on July 13th, and ends on July 22nd. It’s only on Google Play, because that’s where I’m experimenting today. If you prefer paper over digital books, you can buy the paperback on Amazon.com (or UK, DE, NL, CA, JP, IT, ES, FR).

J

 

Procrastination Coach Note Books

Never thought I’d need a page to keep track of where my note books are available, but here it is! There are three designs now, and the next one will be added as soon as it has passed the Amazon review process. I have bought a number of these myself, because I like them so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The note books are available through: Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Italy, Amazon Japan, Amazon Spain, Amazon Canada, Amazon USA

To make things easy, the links will send you to my author page where all available books and note books are listed together.

Specifications for the note books:

• 150 pages
• alternating lined pages with dotted grids
• size 12,7cm x 20,32cm / 5×8″
• printed with chlorine-free ink onto acid-free paper
• made from 30% post-consumer waste recycled material
• paper stock supplied by a Forest Stewardship Council-certified provider

I don’t advise using them with fountain pens or markers, unless you plan to use only one side of a page.

Play against procrastination

Have an upcoming task you don’t like? Try to see if you can make it more fun. By being playful around it for example. A classic form of this is a tidying up contest between kids. Most children don’t like tidying up. But turning it into a contest often works wonders, even when it’s the same task.

Adults don’t respond as well to contest, especially not perfectionists. They are in an eternal contest with themselves, a contest they can’t really win. Which, of course, takes the fun out of it. The self criticism that is involved, makes it even worse.

So how to bring more fun in serious tasks, boring tasks, task that tend to invite self criticism…? For me, making things more playful works. As a child, I wore my mothers high heels when I had to hoover. It really made vacuum cleaning more fun. Walking on high heels that were way too big for me made the task a challenge, instead of 100% boring. And of course, I felt a bit of glamour being in my mums most special shoes…

As an adult, one thing I still fall for is to make things more colourful and spontaneous. My to do lists are less irksome when I write them as mind maps, or with coloured pens, or differently coloured post it notes – or turn them into a raffle. My marketing gets more fun when I can create something. A picture (my recent vouchers). A blog post. Getting to know a Facebook feature I don’t understand yet.

I have some boring tasks waiting for me today. Will I make all of them more fun? No, not when I get them done without the extra effort. But if I find myself procrastinating on:
– making a doctor’s appointment
– arranging new health insurance
– renewing my driver’s license
I’ll try to find a way to make them more fun. If that doesn’t work, I know I’ve written this post so I’ll feel accountability…

My playful act for today was to create a Facebook offer (a feature I don’t understand yet). In January you can get 50% discount on personal support when working on my course, From do it Later to do it Now in 10 days. For 5 euro a day you’ll get personal support to make sure you get the daily tasks done, and extra tips when you send in your worksheets. E-mail me if you’d like this offer but you don’t use Facebook.

Me and my book :)

When I was younger, I wanted to write books. When I got older, I gave up on that idea. Too difficult. Too much work. So many books out there already, what could mine add to the world?

Then I created a course on procrastination. I made a course book for it. A practical document that could also be used as a self paced course. A realistic book that wanted to help in getting things done, but – even more than that – to create lasting change.

When my fabulous designer Lisa suggested I could turn the digital book into a real book, I thought that would be Difficult. A Lot Of Work. Lisa simply asked my permission and did it for me. And now it’s on sale on Amazon!

Pro-tip: don’t believe everything you think 🙂

A post to share my happy face! To celebrate. To share the joy. And to let my inner child know she was right about dreaming! It is a wonderful feeling to hold my own book.  I’m so thrilled to have my very own ISBN-number that I consider learning it by heart just for the fun of it.

Playful unprocrastinating

I was getting way too serious about my idea to create clutter free x-mas presents, in the form of coaching vouchers. I was looking for the perfect word. The best description. Nothing happened.

Tonight I decided to play. Now I have ten possible vouchers you can buy for a loved one.

What they receive is quality time with someone (surprise… It’s me!) who knows how to listen, ask questions, deepen a conversation, create fun, help people come up with ideas and other useful things like that.

What you would pay, is up to your budget. Meaning we can work something out that feels okay for the both of us, no matter your budget.

My goals are:

• Useful, clutter free x-mas presents
• Promoting coaching, because it’s great.
• Raising money for my tuition this year

 

And here’s the second batch. As you can tell by the names, sessions can be about anything. In English or in Dutch. Uplifting or freeing buried emotions.

New clients as a birthday present

How would that work? I don’t know. But since marketing is my favourite thing to procrastinate on, and celebrating my birthday is something I love to do, this is it. I’m asking for new clients for my birthday. To work on procrastination, or to work on anything else. Because it’s wonderful to not have to do everything on your own, and it’s wonderful to get past blocks and disliking yourself and other things that are bothering us, haunting us – or calling from within.

I say ‘us’, because I’m human 🙂 And because I work with a wonderful coach who helps me work on those things I can’t work on alone. Because they feel to scary, too difficult, too whatever. I stopped doing alone what I can’t, and it’s one of the reasons why I feel happy today, on this birthday. It’s been a while since I felt that, so I’m really, really, really grateful.

I’m copying a text from Facebook, since the link refuses to show:

No work shall be done today. It’s my birthday, and I’m spending time enjoying the day, being grateful, and sharing love with an incredible lot of nice people, many of whom I’ve met through Facebook or through http://psentraining.com/

If there’s anything I wish for all of you today, it’s to not procrastinate on taking good care of yourself, whatever that might mean. Maybe it’s saying no to someone or something. Maybe it’s saying yes to some one one or some thing.

Maybe it’s saying yes to receiving love, to being supported, to take a chance you wouldn’t normally take.

Word.

Thanks for reading! Angela

Procrastination

For me, National Poetry Writing Month makes it difficult to stay productive sometimes. The lure of reading poems, having lovely conversations with their writers, or creating something inspired by a prompt, is so… tempting! I rarely write poems about procrastination, but luckily other people do. Here’s one I enjoyed reading, and that taught me a new word (rictameter).

GibberJabber

NaPoWriMo #12
Poetry form: Rictameter

Today
I plan to be
properly productive –
not let time get away from me.
But it’s half past eight. I’ll begin at nine.
Now it’s nine-twelve. I’ll start at ten…
…And that’s how, somehow, I
got nothing done
today.

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Image Credit: Procrastination by Cherry Boniu

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I probably shouldn’t admit it, but sometimes procrastinating can get really productive… Here’s what I’ve been doing instead of working on my administration: combining paintings and drawings I’ve made with poems I’ve made.

The digital work is a chore I don’t like, and I had no ambition to create these things. I tend to prefer making new things over doing something with existing stuff. But, well, hey, I wanted to postpone something else, and this (to my own surprise) was the enabling activity of my choice.

So, now I’ve made a lot of things I’m kind of satisfied with. And I’ve worked on my administration in small bits.

via New skill!