Anyone who is used to working with creative people knows that they are often guilty of procrastinating. In fact, the better and more indispensable they are, the more infuriating they can be to work with.
I find myself guilty of procrastinating with a job I have at the moment. I have worked on several other jobs with this client and others before and since with no difficulty, but for some reason I can't seem to get this one done.
Why?
Most people I have spoken to about this and most things I have read have not asked why. They launch right into finding ways of getting the job done, but this is frustrating and pointless. I know how to get the job done. The problem is not that I can't do it or that I don't know how, it's that I don't want to, and I therefore find all manner of excuses and distractions to avoid doing it in the hope that it will simply go away.
The next response from people trying to be helpful is usually to find ways of wanting to do the job, along the lines of trying to make it interesting or doing a really good job I can be proud of. Again, the problem is not that I can't do a really good job, it's that it doesn't matter if I do or not, and therefore it is not interesting to me no matter how much we can argue about it. Nor do I need to go the extra mile and do a really good job for my own satisfaction and feeling of self worth. I am quite certain that I can do a really good job and I don't need an unnecessary outpouring of effort to tell me so. I would rather be pouring effort into something else where it does matter if I do a really good job or not, and I find that is what I have been spending my time doing instead.
I had this problem, if it can be called one, at school. I used to hate doing some assignments because they were boring and pointless and it didn't matter what I did because even the tiniest effort would have been sufficient. My teachers invariably tried to convince me that I should solve the problem of not enjoying my work by doing more of it, thinking that spending 6 hours on a pointless assignment instead of 2 would be somehow more rewarding.
When all arguments fail, the last resort is - 'but you have to do it'. I have always considered this to be weak-minded thinking. Surely no-one has to do anything. Perhaps in an extreme situation you may be killed if you don't do something, but that still doesn't mean you have to do it. In fact, many of the people we remember for their greatness (and are told to write assignments about) are people who stuck to their beliefs no matter who told them they had to do otherwise. Galileo, Sir Thomas More, that Jesus guy. It is harder to recall the names of great people in history who are remembered for doing what they were told with no better explanation than the depressing mediocrity of 'but that's reality'. Kevin Rudd seems to be making a spirited attempt to prove otherwise, but I digress.
Lest I be called a lazy curmudgeon, I should point out that instead of doing the assignments I considered pointless, I would instead devote my time to reading classic literature or writing short stories. Occasionally, if I felt provoked, I would engage my debating skills in writing an essay explaining why the assignment was pointless and handing that in instead.
In all my years of school I rarely did any homework and there were perhaps a dozen assignments I chose not to complete. Despite various threats and much cajoling, I can't remember ever getting into any serious trouble for this and I passed all my subjects with flying colours up until the point where I lost interest in school altogether and stopped going.
My point is this. When people procrastinate, it is sometimes with good reason. Perhaps they are afraid and need reassurance, perhaps they are wary, or even just plain against what is put in front of them. Aside from simple laziness, most forms of procrastination come from the gut, and the gut is usually worth listening to.
I don't want to do this job. It enriches neither me nor my client. The client will be happy with the smallest effort, in which case my creativity and expertise is not necessary, and a larger effort will simply mean I have spent more time on something unnecessary since the difference will not make much difference to what the client needs. My time is valuable, that is why I charge for it, and there are other things I would rather be doing. I could teach the client to do the job themselves, but they are not interested in that, and perhaps that fact most of all is the reason I am so indifferent. Because there is no incentive to learn, I don't have to do the job because if I don't do it, the client will simply keep waiting, get someone else to do it, do it themselves or decide it doesn't need doing. Thus there is nothing forcing me to change my stance.
Ethically, if I really don't want to do the job I should find someone who will, offer to show the client how to do it themselves or at the very least tell them I can't do it, and now I have become aware of the fact that I'm procrastinating and why, that is probably what I will do.
Or I could just stop my whining and do the damn thing. But that would be to miss the broader point about creative freedom, and indeed freedom in general. It was a wise man who said, freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them - and then, the opportunity to choose.
It may be easier and provide greater security to simply go along with what's expected, but as another great man, Benjamin Franklin, said famously:
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security."
I'll go with my gut thankyou.
