The Procrastination Demon

Mel, There's an old saying, "sales is the lowest paying easy work and highest paying hard work you can do". It's true. And it's just as true of writing copy. Personal confession: Whenever I'm about to write some really important copy - or execute any project that's "really important" - I find myself fighting procrastination. It's odd. The other day I sat down to write some really important copy, and I kept having all these impulses: 'Perry, you need to check your email. You need to finish some critiques. You need to get a haircut.' Huh? A haircut? I know I'm about to do something really important if, as I'm getting started, I have an urge to get a haircut of all things. Haircuts are on the top of my procrastination list, actually. They're just so unimportant. So when executing a haircut attempts to preempt writing copy, it means there's a demon in my head that knows how important the copy is! So I mightily suppressed the haircut urge and kept writing my copy. At some point you have to stare down that copywriting procrastination demon and conquer him. It's really pretty simple - you just lock the door, unplug the Internet connection - and do it. Everybody's got a set of conditions that are optimum, and over time you develop a ritual. For me it takes creative input like music or movies to get my creative juices going. Things need to be quiet and free of distractions, which means the best time is at night after everyone else has gone to bed. I've got notes on points I want to get across, some headline ideas and hooks, and away I go. Yes, writing copy is hard work, but it's probably the least unpleasant hard work I can think of. I've got guys remodeling my kitchen right now, and that's hard work. Hammering, drilling, sawing, cutting out drywall - that's real physical labor. Even harder if it's outdoors in the heat of summer or cold of winter. Even harder if you get a nail through your foot or hurt yourself with a power tool! Compared to all that, slugging down an espresso at 9pm and writing copy from 10pm to 3am is the easiest, highest paying hard work I know of. And it does pay a lot. I would say that the time I spend writing serious copy is worth several thousand dollars an hour. The problem isn't that it's hard at all - the problem is it requires focus, and because it's important, it wakes up the procrastination demon. Put that demon out of his misery and just get it done. Perry Marshall **NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email. Instead, visit http://perrymarshall.com/support with any questions or concerns.  Update subscriber options

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