Putting Off Work That Needs to Get Done

I'm teaching a new class at a community college on Saturday, July 16th called Get Published! The Ins & Outs of Magazine Submissionsand I'm not ready.  Oh sure, I know enough to talk my way through the three hour class, but I want the experience to be more.

I've had "work on course outline for magazine writing class" on my "To Do NOW" whiteboard for the past 2 months, and yet I've probably spent no more than 2 hours total on it.  It's not that I'm worried about getting it done--I always get everything done--but I want to produce quality work and if I throw it together last minute, it will be less than what I know I'm capable of.

There are 2 reasons I see for why I'm avoiding working on this.

1. First reason is that since I am a list-maker, nothing gives me greater joy in life than crossing items off my to-do list.  So I end up spending my time on small projects instead of tackling the big ones.

2. The real reason is I'm not sure what to expect.  I haven't taught the material yet so I can only guess how long it will take to cover each section.

I've taught my Scared Speechless course so many times I can adjust it to 30 minutes or 2 hours at whim.  I know how long it takes to cover the material in each section, I pretty much know by now what questions will be asked, and I feel confident steering the discussion.

This is all new and it's intimidating.  And probably the 3rd reason I'm not devoting time to it is I work best on deadline.  I don't like working on deadline, but I really do some of my best work. If I start too early on a project I'll spend 3 days mulling over a paragraph because I know I have the time to do so.  If the article is due tomorrow, I plow forward and get the s--- done.

Speaking of which, the "small" task on my to-do list was to blog about something.  The big one remains to work on the course.  Blair is out of the house at the property for the next 2-3 hours, the cats are comatose, it's Sunday so there's nothing good on TV--I have no excuse.  It's time to create a course.