This Message Brought to You by Procrastination

by Joan Friedlander

Hello, Procrastination here. I know. I'm something you'd prefer not to think about, or would rather put off! Well, I'd like to know why you don't want to think about me. Do you think I'm BAAADDD? Do you think if you acknowledge me I'll reflect BAADDDLY on you?! If so, I think I may have an important message for you. And, since I have no arms and fingers, and I'm just something you made up anyway, I've asked Joan to help me deliver my message.

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Hello, Joan here. Before you read further, please take a few minutes to think of two or three things you put off for days or weeks or months, or longer. Now pick one of those tasks that really bothers you. It seems simple enough, but you can't seem to get around to doing it, no matter what. Do you have that item in mind and do you have the feeling associated with it? Excellent. Now let's see if you can discover what it has to tell you.

I have observed that procrastination occurs most often when we have something to do that we really…don't…want…to…do! And if we do want to do it, and still put it off, we may simply be afraid of something we associate with the task, or perhaps it's a matter of our approach or personal style.

I'm going to use a couple of examples from real people to begin helping you identify what your "Procrastination Activity" has to tell you.

• A consultant loves creating curriculum but doesn't do it because she needs more than 30 minutes at a time to engage in the creative process of writing. So she never gets to it.

• A business coach doesn't hand off the entry of her expense items month after month because she's sure she'll get to it soon.

• A real estate agent doesn't take time for herself, even when nothing is scheduled because she truly believes she must always focus on her business or her daughter, and that taking time for her is selfish.

• A computer consultant knows he should spend some time planning and engaging in several marketing activities but the next client calls for help and another day goes by.

• A health and weight-loss consultant is told that one of the best ways to drum up new business is to place flyers on cars in parking lots around movie theaters or grocery stores. Weeks go by and no matter what game she makes up, she just doesn't do it.

When you read the brief descriptions of the above challenges do you get a sense of what may be behind their procrastination? I see masked fear, limiting beliefs, poor allocation of time, difficulty making room for what's important vs. what's urgent, reluctance to let go, and living according to the great ideas of others.

The reasons people put things off seem to fall into four arenas. Can you connect your Procrastination Activity to any of the four?

1. It's not the best use of your time, either because you are not very good at it, or it doesn't have immediate relevance to your goals or values (but it remains on your "to-do list" anyway).

2. It actually is an important activity (for purposes of self-expression, business growth or recharging batteries), but you have developed a habit of responding to the urgent (call, project deadlines, crises).

3. You haven't created the right environment in which to get it done, or the way you've decided to get it done doesn't fit your natural style.

4. Performing the activity brings up some fear or belief that you would prefer to keep buried. It could be that getting that thing done would change your future, or prove you or someone else wrong.

If procrastination has a message for you, what is it saying? Embedded in the message behind your resistance to certain activities is an important, honorable truth asking to be told. I suggest it lies in one of three action items:

Delegate
Eliminate
Negotiate/Restructure

Procrastination Here Again (channeled through the faithful fingers of Joan):

Thank you for reading my story. I'm really here to help. I hope I can help you make better and better decisions for yourself so that you get done what's most important in your life and to do so in ways that make life smoother and your business grow with greater ease.

 

by Joan Friedlander, © 2004. All rights reserved.