So I’ll just admit it: Sometimes, I procrastinate.
So does everyone else. Even, I’m guessing, you.
As a society, we get pretty intense about productivity. Make make make! Do do do! Show me the receipts! Get on a new platform! Sell sell sell!
The opposite of productivity, aka “procrastination”, ends up feeling so incredibly charged, and being a “procrastinator” akin to the worst sin imaginable.
Perhaps it will not come as a surprise to you that when it comes to “procrastination” I have pretty rebellious attitude about it.
It’s because condemning ourselves or others for being “lazy” — when we spend time in a way that we didn’t plan to, or that doesn’t accomplish our stated objective — does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help ANYone involved. In fact, it usually just reinforces whatever’s happening that’s leading to the procrastinating.
I’ve done a lot of work to de-stigmatize the idea of procrastination to myself. And I want to share a couple thoughts with you.
There’s really no such thing as Procrastination. Don’t take my word for it. Try making a list of the specific actions you were doing on a day when you thought you were procrastinating. When you’re finished, go through it again and write down WHY you were doing the thing. When I did this for myself — it blew my mind. I realized I wasn’t wasting my time — I had REALLY good reasons to be doing each of the things I was doing. However, I wished to prioritize certain tasks above others, and that didn’t happen. Which leads me to my next point.
Stop condemning yourself. Lists and project management tools aren’t going to be helpful to you until you can disconnect the self-blame and judgement from your actions. There are no inherently good or inherently bad actions. Even thought there might have been an error in your prioritization of tasks, you still were pursuing things that were important to you. Can you come from a place of assuming there’s an extremely good, valid reason for everything you do? Or if not, can you at least assume that you had a good intention?
Make sure your needs are being met. Are you sleep-deprived and fighting it, so you have no energy to do your laundry…and that’s how you ended up on Netflix? Solve your root need first…eg, take a nap. Has it been way too long since you had a proper vacation? Book a ticket.
Do an on-purpose “binge”. Is your procrastination thing spending the afternoon in bed on Saturdays bingeing back episodes of Bridgerton instead of doing your errands? Okay, great. Then make a calendar invite with yourself this Saturday to sit in bed with Netflix. Bring a notebook. Binge the episodes ON PURPOSE - and write down the thoughts you have - especially the negative ones. You want to “catch” the natural negative things your brain comes up with about this experience — so that next time you feel a mental tug to do it, you can respond to your brain with “god I’m so sick of empire-waisted gowns” or whatever — something believable that came from your own brain as a reason NOT to do it.
Consider that what you view as “laziness” might actually be anxiety. Why do so many of us put off doing taxes each year? Are we really that busy, or is it that it’s complicated and we’re worried about doing it wrong and getting in trouble? Or maybe we’re worried we’ll find out that we owe more than we can afford to pay? The same might be true of that print layout you haven’t started yet that’s due tomorrow. If you’re willing to “go into the heart of darkness” — aka name your fear and come up with some strategies to manage it — you might find your resistance dissipates to a much more manageable level.
Take a walk outside in the sun, do a meditation, or otherwise change up your environment. Sometimes a little activity helps — and it doesn’t take much. I really like getting a couple minutes of sunshine in the afternoon because it’s helpful for reinforcing one’s innate circadian rhythm.
Set up a meeting to discuss progress on whatever the thing is that you’re trying to get done. I love this because it automatically makes the goal feel less nebulous and gives you the incentive of being accountable to whomever you are meeting with.
Well, that’s all for now!
Hope your Thursday is going well :)
-Cathy