Procrastination is not laziness

Procrastination is not laziness, a lousy work attitude or bad time management. When you ask people why they procrastinate, these might be some of the answers they give. But it is not true.

So instead of beating yourself up about being lazy or stupid or….  Do something elss. Compassionately ask yourself: “What is going on here? “ Gently investigate what is behind this procrastinating. Because there are very good reasons why you are procrastinating. So find out what the real reason is for putting off doing this task. Once you know the reason you can work on that!

Some common causes of procrastination:

🌱The task is not clear
So we put it off because we don’t know how to do it. Get clarification or help instead of beating yourself up for being lazy.

🌱The task is actually not yours to do
You said yes to something that should be a no. Can you give the assignment back? If not. Can you reframe it in a way that it becomes something you want to do? E.g. What could you learn from it, what are you curious about?  And also resolve- next time the ask me for something like this, I am going to say no. Knowing you will only do it this once will make it easier to do it now.

🌱Fear
A big one. Fear of not being good enough, not being able to do it. The task seems too big or daunting. This fear will prevent you from getting started. So work on the fear not on your ‘laziness’.   What you could do is connect to another energy you would love to be in. For example curiosity. Ask yourself: what am I curious about when doing this task? And then ask, what more am I curious about? Write down all the things you are curious about. From this state of curiosity get started on the task. Because the cool thing is that fear and curiosity cannot go together. You cannot be in these two states at the same time. So going to curiosity will move you out of fear!

If you catch yourself procrastinating this week, don’t beat yourself up about it. Instead get clear on what is behind your procrastination. This will help you to get moving!