Let me begin by saying that I am writing this article because I am tempted to procrastinate yet again from writing . I have a staggering amount of work to be completed and my mind is wandering away yet again. If you are a writer, I invite you to read on about what happened to me when I walked down Procrastination Lane.

Last week was a pretty busy week. In fact I cannot remember when was the last time I had enough "happy time" for myself. However, I wasn't complaining. I have a lovely family at home and I spend every single waking moment with my ten month old daughter and husband. So I try to complete tasks set by my clients speedily and get them to pay me as soon as my work is approved, which is usually in a day or two.

Then something happened and the procrastination demon visited me. I got sluggish, lazy, whatever you want to call it - and I failed to deliver my work as promised. I could have told you how tired I was and that I needed sleep, or how hot the weather is (because we are in the equator you see?), or hundreds of other excuses. The bottomline was that I FAILED to turn in work as promised.

Not unexpectedly, the client I was writing for asked for a refund. I could not issue him one, because the account was empty. What followed was a flurry of angry emails at the end of which I agreed to return the funds out of our own expenses. As a consequence, we did not have much to spend that week and my baby almost had to go hungry because we had VERY little money left for milk.

So you see how important it is NOT to procrastinate. I did not mean to make this sound like a bad sob story. It isn't. It's just a warning for all budding writers whether they write freelance or not. Whenever your mind starts to wander and you begin to gaze longingly at the television, wondering if the latest episode of Gossip Girl or Desperate Housewives is on yet... DON'T. Think about your loved one going hungry as a result of your actions.

I hope writers out there can get their priorities straight because no matter how eloquent or skillful you are, you are nothing without discipline.