The Homeless Blogger’s Guide to Procrastination

The following is a guest post by Henri Junttila.

How many times have you sat in front of your computer and stared at that bright, white, evil and blank sheet of virtual paper that is Microsoft Word? Then after a while you get sick of it and try to find something else to do, such as stare at the wall, pet the dog or just do weird stuff with your material possessions (it’s not the stuff you’re thinking about).

This is what I call the homeless blogger. We all have a homeless blogger inside of us. He’s constantly shuffling, looking for that quick-fix of internet heroin (a.k.a Google Analytics and Twitter). Is a homeless blogger automatically an addict, you might ask? The pie charts say yes.

3 Ways to Procrastinate Yourself to True Freedom

There are a lot of tips I could give you, but I’m just going to share a few of them because the key to really successful blogging is learning what’s going on with your inner homeless blogger. While this may sound strange, it is something that the A-list “gurus” don’t admit, except in private ninja, underground meetings.

With that said, here are a few extra secret tips to true homelessness freedom, so don’t share and don’t retweet, because this is where the good stuff begins.

  • 1. Stats. Traffic stats, twitter followers, adsense clicks and other stats are the key to procrastination. Those numbers never update, because nobody likes you, but the thrill you get from clicking refresh every 1.6 seconds is amazing.
  • 2. Cats. Animals are crucial here, but one of the best ones are cats, because cats are secretly living the exact same lives humans are. The only difference is that they chase mice, we chase money. Tomato, tamato. YouTube is a place for serious education, but somehow videos of cats got up there. Don’t ask me how, some kind of inside job or conspiracy is my guess.
  • 3. Blogging reports. You have to stay updated on the same stuff that keeps coming out. Read all of the blogging reports that come out, because they contain useful and important information, such as writing text on your blog. That stuff is impossible to figure out on your own, so cancel everything you’re doing (anything important at least, not the cat stuff) and read the goddamn reports.
The Deep Wrap Up Summary

If you want to be the anti-homeless blogger, you don’t necessarily have to shut down all your distractions. Distractions are a part of our lives. Let’s be honest, we all have ADD and some people have severe mental problems, but that’s okay!

The interwebs makes this all okay. Learn to embrace the distractions. I check my stats all the time. I know people say that after the first 3 months you don’t check your stats, but I check mine even more now and I’ve added YouTube cat videos to the mix. People still call me a machine, because I comment on 108 blogs and I write guest posts like this one in like 3 minutes. I do it all with distractions.

Wake Up Cloud is about helping people improve their lives not only through achieving financial freedom, but also improving their productivity, beliefs and realizing you can live a life full of passion and fulfillment. A new friend, I look forward to reading more of Henri’s self improvement ideas in 2010.


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  • Tom
    I can definitely relate to procrastination. It is probably my biggest enemy of success. When I write myself a to-do list for the day - I get it all done with time to spare, but when I just try and get as much word done as possible - I usually get nothing done.
  • You gotta plan when you'll give into distractions.

    I also agree with Dave Doolin, three minutes is all you spent to write this post? You must think Jordan's blog really sucks! Lol!
  • I didn't really spend 3 minutes, maybe 5.

    On the contrary Gordie. I think it rocks, because I let myself be me completely on this post and released all the blocks. This post is my art and Jordan is showcasing it. When I die it will be worth millions of billions and Jordan can sell it.
  • I have to agree with you, Henri. This blog is pretty refreshing. Your post was well written for the time you spent on it. Why don't you consider joining our team of writers on my blog?
  • Wow! 3 minutes is amazing.

    A lot of articles I write take many, many hours.
  • Most of the time, articles just seem to flow out of me. I do have some articles that take a long time and I can deliberately take a long time and really fine tune things, but often I don't think it is necessary. It's all about destroying those mental blocks that hold you back, at least that has been my experience teaching people how to write faster.

    Oh and also it depends on the type of post. You probably write a lot of technical stuff, Dave, so that will most likely take a lot longer. When I write from experience everything just flows :)
  • ROFL, "severe mental problems" as an anchored link... love it and will take it any way it comes. Now, if I start ranking for that term, I am gonna toss up some Adsense and lett'r fly. :)
  • They're called "easter eggs" for a reason... Thanks for noticing my little joke, dude! Get some affiliates that sell padding for walls and you should do quite well.
  • Haha great post Henri. Really relate to what you described as the 'homeless blogger' in fact I'm doing it right now.

    It's not until I turn my goals for the month into actionable items in the form of a tasklist then make a game out of that tasklist (ie - be a ninja and smash these tasks in 1 hour POW!) which I then start to actually do some productivity ;)

    But hey this is work too.

    (Just tried to insert a link ninja style there - let's see if it blows up in my face. Not sure about the limitations with Disqus comments)


    Edit: Success it worked!

    Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
  • Hey Sarge!

    Yeah an action tasklist is awesome. I always stress that people should find their own way and experiment, because what works for me might not work for you, although you never know if the ninja tricks I use might add to your mastery of the art ;).
  • That's so true. I got hooked on the GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen that I was frustrated for months if not a good year because it wasn't working for me the way the book made it out to be. I then tried other methods/theories from various other sources and sort of mixed them all up and put it to my own system, which continues to evolve anyway.

    What works well for me these days is pen and paper and a timer. Turn it into a game ;) Or focus session or blitz. I call it lots of things. Generally things just pan out as time goes on that I've written down to do but if I find myself struggling to concentrate, that's when I turn it into a game. Games are fun!
  • Jen
    Lol! Great post Henri! I am often guilty of these! :) but I do want to learn how to comment on 108 blogs and write great posts like this in 3 mins please :)
  • I just talked about this with Jordan. I have had so many people ask me about this that I've started thinking that maybe I should whip up some kind of short course with an ebook, videos and some very unique audio that will re-program your brain to write awesomely fast ;)
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