There are several reasons why the right brainer is suspectible to this disease. These include fear of success, fear of failure and fear that it won’t be perfect. There are many more reasons, but the bottom line in most of them is fear.

There are ways to deal with fear. You don’t always have to face it. You can sneak around it, hand it off to someone else, fool it. For instance:

Cram it.  Sometimes you need a push or the pressure of an impending deadline, to get you off the couch and into action.

Wait for inspiration.  It is a romantic notion that you wait around for an epiphany, that ‘aha’ revelation and then work like mad to finish. That makes for interesting headlines but the successful artist works day after day through blocks, bad habits, urges and distractions to create their art. There is no perfect time to begin. Begin now.

Cut it up. When you’re faced with a big project, start by cutting it into workable pieces. That does two things: it gives you a better overall picture of what needs to be done and how everything works together and it makes it less overwhelming to start.

Take a trip. You know how just before a vacation you can get twice as much done in half the time? You are on a mission. Set up a vacation for just after a deadline. Use the extra energy that a pre holiday provides.  Kick ass, then kick back.

Stop making excuses.  Work on thinking positive, shoot down those negative thoughts before they take wing.  Thinking that you can becomes thinking that you will becomes knowing you will becomes doing it.

Mind over matter. Get into a creative mind set any way you can. Find a method that works for you and use it.

List the pros and cons. Pros get things done, take proper steps to beat procrastination and finish on time. Cons lie and cheat (and do time).  Write down all the negative consequences of  procrastinating on a particular project on the left side of a sheet of paper. On the right side, list all the benefits of starting and completing it (include a personal reward). If the pros outweigh the cons, you have got all the more reason to start. If the cons win, maybe it is not worth doing. This is an intellectual excercise, and procrastination is primarily an emotional problem, but you need all the ammunition you can get.

Just do it. In a creative career, you can’t tell a client you are not feeling creative today. Very few people have the luxury of waiting for their muse to show up. Find ways to do the work. Develop a bank of ‘starters’. Then use them.

Set limits. Say to yourself.  “i am only going to work on this for two hours

Minimize it.  A page a day keeps procrastination away. Set a minimum amount of work you will do per day. Make it minor. This works much like the ‘only two hours’ idea.

Throw a kick off party for each new project. Give yourself a reward for just beginning. You actually reserve the reward till the end, which for someone with an impulsive personality is too long to wait. Give yourself credit for just starting.

Perfectionism is like a muscle cramp. Just get it out. Don’t worry about how perfect it is, or your creativity cramps up. It does not have to be perfect the first time out. Part of the fun is in the polishing.

Ignore it.  There are to many opportunities out there, you will never get it all. It can overwhelm you. The answer is to tap internal wisom. You know more than you think you know. The answer is focus. Go back to your goals. Figure out what you want to do here and dump the other stuff, no matter how interesting.

Don’t major in the minors.  Let some things go.  Minimize the small stuff. This stuff is just a renewable source of procrastination.

Make a movie. You know they don’t shoot movies in sequence, right.  You don’t have to begin at the beginning either. Find a easy place to start. You don’t have to do things in a linear fashion. In fact it is often better not to do things this way.

Get help.  Find a goal buddy. Brainstorm with others for ideas. Have someone hold you accountable. Delegate a portion of the project.

Force yourself. The longer you procrastinate, the harder it is to start.  You beat yourself up – you start thinking shoulda, woulda, coulda. Then tension, anger, and jealousy raise their ugly heads. Which of course, wastes more time and makes you feel worse about yourself. You spiral down into procrastination hell. You are no longer in control.  The only way out is to DO SOMETHING. Anything. Make a sketch. Race around the block (doing something physically energetic puts your brain into a high energy mode somehow). Success breeds success. Action comes before motivation, not the other way around.

Don’t Beat Around The Bush

There is nothing wrong with letting things simmer until they reach a boiling point. Creatives need time to allow the subconscious to well up into the conscious with new ideas pieced together from past experience. It’s called inspiration. Although you are going to have to work without it sometimes, the real excitement in your work will come here. So don’t plan your days too tightly. Don’t lock yourself in. Get plenty of sleep. GO for a drive or a walk sometimes, heading nowhere. This is not the same as procrastination, and the distinction should be very clear.

The big difference between the two is energy. Procrastination drains your energy, making it harder and harder to do anything at all. The creative process, even when you are not working directly on a project is energizing. It brings you to life.  Part of you job as a creative businessperson is to nurture that creativity.  Creative people are creatures of habit. You probably think you prefer total freedom and chaos, but you need some structure to create. You need to have a work space and materials and a certain amount of uninterrupted time to create effectively. A routine provides the framework to get things started (and completed) on time.  Get all your ducks in a row and then shoot them. Get mundane tasks out of the way first. Clear your mind. Don’t try to complete all of your piddly little projects before you start, however, that ‘s one of the worst forms of procrastination. Everything is more interesting than what you are working on when you are stuck. But completing a few of them sometimes gets you motivated to begin on your more serious stuff. It is been proven that ideas come to you when you are doing such mundane things as making copies, washing the car, cleaning the house.

Successful creative people have rigorous rituals.  Start at a regular time in the day, do regular stuff before they start working. The point is to relax and prepare mentally for the coming session. Becoming successful as a creative doesn’t mean living a dog’s life. It requires discipline to practice, think, create. If you really want to make a career of your creativity, you have to make some sacrifices in order to produce something. Meanwhile enjoy the journey. You are much less likely to procrastinate if your work is fun. Be creative! If you are good you can find a way to make even the yucky parts fun (or get rid of them somehow).  If you can make the journey more enjoyable, the whole process is better.

Procrastination does not only paralyze your day to day work. It can stunt your career. You have to make your own breaks, take matters into your own hands. Make an independent film, self publish your novel, form your own record label, sell your art at the internet, move forward. Get some momentum going. Put your money where your mouth is. Don’t let not having a ‘deal’ stop you.