What have you been putting off doing? Why?

It’s Monday, October 9th 2023. At the end of my day and I’m staring at the to-do list I made earlier. Lists help me overcome my high functioning anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD. The one task at the bottom of the list that I’ve been putting off is an important one. It’s already late—I still haven’t gotten to it.

I tell myself I’ll tackle marketing on Instagram for my art webpage tomorrow but tomorrow turns into the next day until I invoke the self imposed ‘deadline’ on myself.

Suddenly I’m Taylor Swift in ‘Anti-Hero’: “it’s me, hi! I’m the problem it’s me.”

Almost everyone procrastinates at one point or another. For many, especially me, the issue doesn’t interfere with my quality of life. Instead of getting ticked off at my continually procrastinating, and then regretting it, I get a rush from being on a deadline and cutting it close.

In college my highest graded papers were ones I pulled ‘all nighters’ writing. The heightened anxiety of needing to get it done giving each assignment that something extra. Marketing as it turns out isn’t as easy as term papers, and I put off doing shameless promotion for such a long time because I’m the same woman who walks into a store and if I’m spoken about promotional deals or asked if I need help by the sales clerks, I leave. Why on earth would I want to do that to my followers?

The song ‘Work Bitch’ by Britney Spears creeps into my brain like a catchy jingle from your local fast food joint because if I hope to have my name known and have my art featured in galleries all over then I need to ‘get to work Bitch’ and getting to work included marketing my work and yes, promoting it.

Knowing this needed to get done I was forced to ask myself a serious question: Am I closet adrenaline junkie—or is my procrastination pointing to something more serious?

Here’s what I came up with:

Feeling Bored
Marketing is boring & unpleasant, I literally created three different works before I buckled down and started drawing up a strategy for my social media marketing plan.

Fear and Anxiety
Another reason I procrastinate? I know nothing about marketing-I’m terrified I’m going to suck at it and not sell anything. My ambition can be debilitating sometimes, I want success so badly but the steps to get there can be very overwhelming to me. The idea that I need to convince family, friends and strangers to buy my art to hang in their homes. That’s a responsibility I take seriously. One thing I am good at? Art and wanting to connect with people who appreciate unique styles of art. It’s the sales part I have anxiety about which goes back to not being the pushy salesperson. Then there’s the matter of, will I reach enough people to be successful?

Perfectionism
Remember my Anti-Hero moment? Hi, I’m Brittany and I’m a recovering perfectionist. I’ve gotten better but I have days I relapse and those days play a role in my procrastination. I’ve delayed marketing tasks because I believe I won’t do well or that fail altogether at it . I combated this but studying other Instagrams of artists and craftspeople and see how they market. As I felt more inspired I gained confidence which gave me the strength to do it.

Ultimately by Wednesday I buckled down and did my best. Instead of trying to be too pushy I’m going to be me. I like writing and creating. I’ve been told I’m great with words so I was able to string together something hopefully not to cheesy but I’ll let you all be the judge of that. Follow me on Instagram: @simplybrittanymschmidt.

I was putting off marketing my art for various reasons listed above but once I got out of my own way I accomplished it.

Please Take A Moment To Check Out My Artwork