Accepting procrastination doesn’t come easy for most of us.
The thing is, there are always things we need to sort out. Very often they are important. Big impact things, if you will. Health stuff. Self-care in the time of coronavirus. Family things. The important things in life.
Sometimes it’s delaying the work you need to do surrounding your career. That could be updating your LinkedIn profile. It could be getting your resume sorted. Possibly, it could be working on a learning program that can take you to the next level. It could be getting the job application completed ahead of the deadline, in light of the unintended consequences of COVID. You may even have had a New Year’s resolution to start a side hustle. Everyone else is in on the side hustle vibe.
Yet you put it off. Again and again and again.
It Happens to All of Us
I’m throwing in the word “you” but I’m as guilty as the next person. There are times my to-do list takes on a life of its own and runs the length of an essay. It just keeps growing. Yes, I’ll cross things off the list. But very often it’s the low impact, easy-to-do elements. It feels warm and comfortable to do so. There’s no risk in that approach. You are not exposing yourself to a lesson in failure. You’re not making yourself vulnerable. At the same time, you’re avoiding doing the things you know you need to do. The things that move the needle.
That’s classic procrastination. You can have all the productivity tools available to humankind, but that doesn’t mean you will do the work. Yes, these tools have plenty of value. But unless you’re getting the work done, you’re fooling yourself. But don’t beat yourself up. Accepting procrastination for what it is is all important.
Procrastination is Normal
The trouble is procrastination isn’t a time management problem. It’s an emotional problem. That emotion is very often fear-based. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Possibly even fear of success (“Will my friends resent me for achieving XYZ?”). Maybe it’s fear of the commitment of the time, money or energy. We’ve all been there. It’s a very human trait.
Another lens with which to view the environment within which procrastination thrives is one of focus. It’s not about time management. It’s about priority management. Do you want to get the work done right now? Or are you finding more comfort in NOT doing the work. We have to keep in mind that even NOT doing something serves us on some level personally. It helps us avoid those uncomfortable parts of life – failure, rejection etc etc. You know that things change in finance. You know that you need to do something about your current situation. But you don’t….You get the picture.
So what’s stopping you from doing what you need to do? What emotion? What is your current priority? Only you can answer that.
This isn’t about beating yourself up or judging. After all, this is common to all of us to a greater or lesser degree. This is about awareness. It’s about acknowledging and accepting procrastination. Then you can choose whether or not to do something about it.
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