How dog girls can help procrastination (Patreon)

I procrastinate, BAD. I've always just assumed the problem was a lack of discipline, and that the solution was to just pound stimulants and berate myself until I start working. Lately more than ever though, the returns from this approach are diminishing.

Recently I've opened up to the idea that my struggles with procrastination might have more to do with my emotional state than some lack of character. I'm a big fan of hustle culture shit; toughening up, building resilience, GETTING AFTER IT!!! But if something your doing isn't working, it's just smart to try something else. Lately, instead of scolding myself for being lazy, I take a second to analyze my thoughts. Here's the pattern I discovered:

I sit down to draw, and I immediately start thinking of how I'm going to use my drawings for work. All these considerations bounce around in my head, and instead of being able to focus on the task at hand, I'm caught up thinking about the entirety of my career and how each stroke affects it. This is not an emotional state conducive to productivity! 

One solution to alleviating the anxiety would be to stop drawing and do something else, but that's not really a solution either. Drawing is my full time job; it's how I support myself. I need to work, I can't just be spending all day watching anime and taking bubble baths, I need to draw!!! What I actually need to do is compartmentalize WHAT I'm worrying about, so that I can narrow my focus onto the work itself.

That's where these drawings come in! I just really really wanted to draw some cute slice of life scenes with VHS and Mitsu. I've wanted to for a long long time, but I'm normally really hesitant because I'm caught up in how the drawings I do will play into the overall lore for them as characters. Do they live in America? Do they live in Japan? How much older is Mitsu? I don't know! I think sometimes you just have to draw for exploration purposes. Now I've got some cute little drawings, and I'm warmed up for more drawing.

Anyway, that's my little essay. I thought it might be a fun change of pace instead of just posting the drawing with a sentence or two. I hope you can find the advice useful too. 

TL;DR Stop beating yourself up for procrastinating, it doesn't work!