We all put off things we don’t want to do immediately (um, right?). But some of us Chicks (and writers in general) have developed particularly ingenious methods of avoidance. In fact, we come up with amazing new ones every day. Read on for inspiration…

Lisa Q. Mathews

We didn’t have much of a summer here in New England, thanks to pretty much daily, pounding tropical rains. Our overgrown, steamy backyard looks like Jurassic Park now, with hordes of huge wild turkeys living it up. Their summer was awesome. But now, along with the return of pumpkin lattes and beers and endless butternut squash, the mail order catalog powers-that-be have jumped into the game. I’m not planning to buy new fuzzy sweaters, flannel sheets, dusters, Little House on the Prairie skirts, boots or cute puffer vests this year due to a sorry lack o’ funds, but those catalogs sure are fun to peruse. If I don’t send them straight to recycling from the mailbox (easy for those hipster, expensively-produced tomes of “minimalist” style), they go into the Procrastination Pile. Have I tried to unsubscribe? Oh, sure. But you know how THAT goes. Excuse me, but the Vermont Country Store and Sharper Image and Wayfair catalogs just arrived. I’ll be right back…

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 Ellen Byron

My current form of procrastination is very specific to a time and place. When I’m stuck or dodging writing, I picket. I’m a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America, to whom I owe the pension that helps float my mystery writing these days. Radford Studios is down the street from me. Originally Republic Studios, then MTM (for Mary Tyler Moore), and CBS Studios, it’s where iconic shows like Seinfeld and Will & Grace were shot. I worked there when I was a writer on Just Shoot Me, Still Standing, and a show or two that didn’t last very long.

I take my person picket sign (it says “I write mysteries. I kill for a living. Just sayin’.) and head down the hill to the designated picket gate, where I do about an hour of laps. I get in a nice amount of steps, even though the pace is slow, and if I ignore people, I can even come up with a story break. Thanks, AMPTP! (That’s sarcasm. It stands for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the organization stonewalling our negotiations. I guess hunkering down would deprive the CEOS of their cherished yacht time!)

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Vickie Fee

My husband had surgery a couple of weeks ago. He’s coming along nicely, but he’s still limited in doing some things. Currently, he can’t pick up anything that weighs more than five pounds, and until Friday we had to carefully wrap his arm in plastic for him to take a shower. Since there are various and sundry things he can’t really do. I’ve been doing those things and acting like they have to be done expeditiously, whether that’s true or not. I can get out of doing anything I should be doing, including writing, by telling myself I must be doing dishes or laundry right this very minute. Usually, I can be rather lax about getting around to those chores. And since hubs is convalescing, I can also “spend time with him” watching tech TV or the latest Only Murders in the Building episode.

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Cynthia Kuhn

Me, procrastinate? Why I never! Just kidding (or JKJK as my kids used to say when they were very little and very cute and always making jokes followed by JKJK). And now I’m procrastinating writing this post by traveling down memory lane. Anyway, I was taught long ago at a workshop that procrastination can be a part of the process for many writers, as a response to fear of the blank page. That makes sense. If I don’t start, I won’t fail!  (Unless I never start, in which case I totally failed. Which seems like quite the loophole.) But anything other than the thing you should be doing can serve this purpose. It’s very hard not to procrastinate. honestly. Just reading this post, we’re all procrastinating the rest of our day! *throws confetti*

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Leslie Karst

Let me count the ways! Doing the dishes, fixing some coffee, weeding the garden, taking Ziggy for a walk, making myself a snack, reading the newspaper, fetching another cup of coffee….

But my worst (or best?) form of procrastination is, alas, scrolling through Facebook and seeing all the fun things my friends are doing while they procrastinate.

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Becky Clark

I’m not typically a procrastinator, but when I discovered online jigsaw puzzles, all bets were off. I can dive into those with relish and not come up for a breath for an hour! I don’t know what it is about jigsaws versus crosswords versus … well, literally anything else, but they totally suck me in and I can forget everything else I’m supposed to be doing. I usually set a timer, but if I forget, or if I ignore it—I just gotta finish this orange bit here—I can avoid quite a lot of what I’m supposed to be doing. I rationalize the puzzles by telling myself it’s okay because it’s a brain workout. But we all know the brain workout is finding excuses for our procrastination!

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Jennifer Chow

Since I’ve been stuck in a room with my post-Bouchercon Covid germs, I’ve been creatively procrastinating. While I should be writing, instead I’ve been:

1. Staring out the window—though, to be fair, we did have gorgeous cotton-candy-colored skies the other evening
2. YouTubing sea angels—my daughter recently learned about these tiny sea slugs with diaphanous wings; I’d never heard of them before, so I’ve been researching pics and videos of them
3. Tracking deliveries—I’ve been refreshing the page on online orders to figure out where my packages are and when they’ll truly arrive  

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Readers, we’d love to hear how YOU find pressing things to pass the time when you’re supposed to be diligently working on something else–and no, reading doesn’t count, sorry. Drop us a note in the comments below!