Procrastination is something that comes up a lot, like imposter syndrome, in the coaching world. And whilst I’ve done a full guide on imposter syndrome rather than just a blog (you can grab that here), I realise there is some irony that I’ve put off writing about procrastination, until now.
What is procrastination and why do we procrastinate?
So, what are we talking about with procrastination? It’s not laziness or simply saying it’s poor time management. Those who persistently procrastinate are very often still busy with something, it’s just not the thing they intended to do, or thought they should do in that time. Is it about motivation? Is it a character flaw? I don’t think there is a straight-forward answer here, which probably at least partly explains why I’ve procrastinated writing about it!
There are a lot of reasons why so many of us put off things we should do. Here are just a few:
· Is the thing to be done something you really want to do (or need to do)? I mean, we don’t all want to do a tax return or boring life admin, but it is necessary! But if it isn’t a mundane ‘must do chore’ type task, and yet it still gets put off, is it because it isn’t really your want in the first place?
· It feels difficult or we don’t know where to start. So we don’t!
· It’s new or challenging or out of our comfort zone, so we delay it, hoping we might feel differently about it another time.
· There’s always something easier / more attractive / exciting / interesting / safe to be done instead.
· We fear what might happen if we do the thing. Will we do it well? What will people think? What if we mess it up? What if no one even notices we’ve done it... and so on.
And I’m sure there are many, many more, but I imagine some of the above feels familiar to a lot of us. And here in lies an issue – we can go on and on looking for rational reasons why we are not ‘doing the thing’. But an absolute rational reason that we can argue with and beat into submission might not exist. How many of us have been ‘deadline dancers’? We know that leaving that assignment to the last minute will result in a chaotic all-nighter, and yet we do it anyway. Where’s the logic in that? Maybe there isn’t any, it just is how some of us operate and, all the same, we did get the work done.
This brings me to the second part – is procrastination actually a problem? Tim Urban discusses this brilliantly in his Tedx talk “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator” (c 14 mins and has been viewed some 62 million times at the time of writing this – that tells you a lot about the pervasiveness of procrastination right there!). He observes that if there isn’t a deadline to cram our efforts into at the last minute, then the panic monster that makes us get the thing done in the nick of time isn’t awakened. We can even talk light-heartedly about the two students who submitted their assignments, one in plenty of time, and the other at the 11th hour in a sweaty mess (and who knows whose assignment was actually better?). But what about in life, when we don’t take action that we wish we could, or try the new thing, or whatever it might be because there is no deadline or seeming consequence? Unfortunately, this might be where ‘not doing the thing’ is a problem.
I realise this might be painting quite a gloomy picture – we will all experience procrastination to some degree, certainly when there aren’t deadlines involved, and it can be a losing battle to try and find the logic to do battle with the why.
What can we do about procrastination?
So what can we do? We can try just taking an action and not look for the thinking to back it up. I know that sounds counter-intuitive to say as a coach... BUT in the case of procrastination, our continued thinking about it can tie us in knots (and yet more delay!). This may not work for everyone, but it could be worth asking yourself once in a while “shall I do the thing now?” and see if your answer to that very simple question (to take action) is yes or no. If it’s yes, great, if it’s no, maybe it isn’t the right time. Yet. Or maybe ever if you say no for a very long time. If this doesn’t work for you, or you fall into the latter camp of saying no repeatedly, maybe some more thinking is another way to tackle it – but with a focus.
For example, trying to be really honest with ourselves why is it really that we are putting this thing off. Are we fearful of an imagined repercussion? Then maybe asking yourself, what if that repercussion did actually happen... how bad is it, really? Then, what could we do about that repercussion (re-evaluate, take learning for next time possibly). If we are seeking a confidence-boost to take action, reminding ourselves of positive things we have achieved in other situations when we took action. Then considering what the best-case scenario could be if we took action. Can we live with the possible failure as an outcome if it could instead lead to success?
I’m not saying that either of these are a fail-safe way to deal with procrastination – partly hence the question is it a problem in the first place to which we need a solution? And of course, it also depends on what ‘the thing’ is in the first place!
If you’d like to explore this more and have something that you just aren’t getting round to, do get in touch, I’d love to see if I can help! kathryn@kbmindfulcoaching.com
Comments