The Hard Truth About Procrastination

by Maria Molfino 

 

There are deep psychological reasons behind procrastination. It’s not about willpower and laziness. It’s about fear and resistance. In observing my own tendencies, coaching, meditating, and leading workshops on this topic, here’s what I’ve learned:

Indecision is really about fear

When we trace back the root of indecision, we see that indecision is a manifestation of fear. Fear of what? Fear of making the wrong decision.

If there is a right and wrong decision to make, the thoughts are “If I choose the wrong decision, I won’t advance as much, I won’t get closer to the results I want, I won’t obtain my goals…I will fail.

Indecision = fear of making mistake = perfectionism = fear of failure.

If you’re in a period of indecision and uncertainty, move into any form of action, no matter how small the step. You will learn and then course-correct as needed. You may lose time (which sucks in a culture obsessed with speed), but at the end of the day, you have gained peace of mind. Indecision and worry just drains your mental energy. Stay away!

Unlink your work from your worth

Especially as creatives, designers and writers, we tend to put a kind of heaviness around the work that we do. That’s because we see our work as an extension of ourselves. And our work is very much an extension of a very deep part of ourselves: our personality, experiences, desires, dreams, values and fears.

But there’s a trap!

 

The trap is linking our work to our sense of worth.

This association can often happen on a very subconscious level. We receive feedback on a piece of work and we feel bad because we believe we are bad or not good enough.

Linking our work to our worth puts an intensity around the work. The more intensity and pressure you put on the work, the more likely you will procrastinate it. Find ways to make your work light. Learn to unlink the association between you and what you create.

You are much more than your design, job or career. Aren’t you?

Create more pause because it gives you more choice

Distraction and procrastination are best friends forever. Some distractions are definitely self-induced–you are resisting the task and so you are allowing yourself to be distracted, or you are even seeking out distraction.

We react to our own resistance, but aren’t aware that’s what’s happening in the moment. In other words, distraction is a problem with awareness and reactivity.

Throughout the day, create more spaces and pauses. Notice, observe, and choose differently. Pause gives you choice.

How to create pause:

• Develop a meditation practice. This will decrease your arousal/stress and increase your awareness and focus throughout the day, so that you can become aware of your tendencies of resistance and distraction.

• Practice holding your phone and looking at it without touching anything!
  
  
• Whenever something is loading and you see the loading icon, pause and ask yourself: Do I really need to do this right now? The loading icon would serve as a mental trigger for you to pose the question. Pretty powerful!

Work for less time. Eight hours is a myth! You don’t need to work for eight hours. You can work for far less time. But here’s the trick: design your day for concentrated bursts of focused work.

We tend to work in a very diffused way over several hours, where our attention is divided and we aren’t clear about what really needs to get done. We’re at the mercy of distractions. We have little output to show for the amount of time we have actually spent. But if you have periods of time that you’re concentrated and producing high quality work, you’ll have more leisure time.

One great strategy for this is called the unschedule. Schedule everything but work into your calendar. If you were to imagine your healthiest, most amazing self, what would you schedule?

Exercise, meditation, cooking time, friends, fun, festivals, hobbies, etc. Schedule it all.

The remaining time is your concentrated work time.

Experiment with the unschedule for a week and see how it goes! You’ll be surprised.
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