I’m a talented and practised procrastinator. Through the years I’ve been through a whole spectrum of emotions and attitudes towards the fact I’m a procrastinator; self loathing, bemusement, resignation, curiosity, disappointment, anger, cheerful acceptance – generally determined by exactly what it is I’m procrastinating about!
These different relationships and my exploration around procrastination are reflected in various blog posts I’ve written too:
- This one on facing into the fear and discomfort around whatever I’m avoiding
- This one about stopping assuming a future version of myself would prefer or be better able to do the task than the current version
- This one highlighting the procrastination-shame cycle
- A deeply personal one I wrote after Mum died on how reading old letters helped me let go of perfectionism, overwhelm and avoidance
- A summary of Eleanor Roosevelt’s elegant advice on how to be productive
- My Confessions of a Social Introvert post reflecting that I generally procrastinate for good reason
- And the sneaky inside view of the procrastination section of The ALIVE programme
All of these have helped me when I’ve hit a pocket of procrastination, and just now I’m experimenting with adding a new tool to my ‘just get it done’ tool box. This year my grand experiment is around having more self-respect. Respect is a massively important value for me, but I haven’t always treated myself with the respect that I give for others. I’m curious to see the impact on my life when I see my behaviours through the lens of how respectful they are to either my present or future self! So far it’s helping with what I wear, how I tidy up after myself as well as helping prioritise my daily to-do list by simply asking “Is putting this task off a respectful thing to do?”
What helps you to stop procrastinating?
