Hi!
In today’s post, I’ll be talking about a topic that I, as well as most people, know a little too well.
An issue that creates adversity in some of the most important moments we face and prevents us from doing some of the things that matter the most. I’m talking about procrastination.
If you’d like to know more about what procrastination is, the effects it has on our lives, and how we can overcome procrastination, keep on reading.
What procrastination is, and what it isn’t.
When I was researching for this post I came across some ideas about this topic that seemed misleading or inaccurate to me, and I think that it’s important to tackle these myths first so that we can get a better understanding of what procrastination is.
Procrastination is often misconstructed as a character flaw or a sign of laziness, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. These ideas convey an oversimplified idea of what procrastination is and they often lead people into unhelpful sefl-criticism that often makes the problem worse.
Also, we should consider that procrastination is not just putting things off, there are times when we should avoid doing something because there other tasks that are more important and require more of our attention.
Procrastination is a very particular behavior where we delay something we intend to do, even though we expect to get bad consequences from doing so.
Like avoiding working on a project until the last minute, despite knowing you’ll be too close to the deadline and won't have enough time to complete it; or putting off chores even though you know they’ll pile up and you’ll be even more overwhelmed by them.
And if we take a look at what are the causes of procrastination, we find that there are two main ones.
The existence of too much resistance or obstacles that prevents us from getting started.
A problem with regulating negative emotions, like anxiety, fear, shame, boredom, frustration, etc, that instinctively make us turn to procrastination as a coping mechanism.
The costs of procrastination
Although procrastinating may seem like a harmless habit, I think that it can have some impactful consequences that make it a problem worth tackling.
On one side, despite our visceral intention to use procrastination to cope with the negative feelings we get, it turns out that procrastination is not the best tool for the job, and more often than not it results in an increase of these emotions.
Also, I’d like to talk about a concept from the book “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, the concept is called two lives.
Pressfield argues that most of us have two lives, the life we live and an unlived life.
The unlived life exists inside of us, it is one where we express our creativity, passion, and purpose, we live out our dreams and fulfill our potential, the one that is calling for us.
The life we are living instead is the one that is not quite there, that is held back from its full potential and not true to what we’d wish to be living.
In between these two lives, there’s what the author calls Resistance and procrastination is a big part of it and its role in holding us back and missing opportunities to close the gap that separates the two lives.
I also believe that it is important to remember that our time is limited and precious. Given that we don’t live forever, making the most out of our time is an important part of living a fulfilling life and procrastination can rob us of the opportunity to do this.
Overcoming procrastination
The good news is that beating procrastination is absolutely possible and easier than we tend to think. Here are some of the best ways I found how to do it:
Ask yourself “What is the next action?”: When we look forward to the things that we want and need to get done they tend to look like a colossal task that is impossible for us. When this happens, think about a single action you could and would do to get started, it doesn’t matter how small it may be, the goal is simply to get started. Once you do this it becomes a lot easier to build some momentum and keep going step by step.
The RAIN method: This is a tool that helps us deal with the underlying emotions of procrastination and it consists of four steps,
Recognize: Try to acknowledge and identify the emotions and thoughts that are present in the moment, without trying to suppress or ignore them.
Accept: Here, you accept the emotions and thoughts you are feeling, without judgment or criticism.
Investigate: This step involves exploring the emotions and thoughts more deeply, trying to understand their root causes and any underlying beliefs or assumptions that may be contributing to them.
Non-identification: Finally, you learn to observe the emotions and thoughts without becoming overly identified with them, recognizing that even if you feel an emotion, it doesn’t mean that it defines who you are.
Procrastination is a problem all of us have to deal with and it can have significant emotional and personal costs, but overcoming it is definitely possible. With the ideas from this post, you’ll be well-equipped to deal with it and begin to close the gap between the unlived life inside us and the life we are currently living.
If want to share your thoughts about this topic or some feedback for me, please leave a comment or reply to this email, I’d love to hear from you.
-Alan