I love working with procrastinators. I think this is because I can relate to them. I easily slip into procrastination myself. Sometimes tasks just seem overwhelming and I just can’t bring myself to do them until I either can no longer stand myself or a deadline is rapidly approaching.
I thought about this as I cleaned my kitchen a couple weeks ago – the night before we were having some people over. I wondered when I had last cleaned the top of the refrigerator. From the look of it, it had been years. The perplexing thing is, it’s not that I had not thought about cleaning the top of the fridge. Oh no, I’d thought of it often. I’d expended quite a bit of energy thinking about how I needed to clean the top of the fridge and I’d continued to not clean it.
I started thinking about when this habit of putting things off had started. In high school and on into college, my reports and papers were done the night before they were due. My first draft was always my final version. Even in my cubicle life, I’ve been known to put things off until the last minute. It took me a while to figure out the psychology of my procrastination but once I did, it all made sense.
So why had I spent weeks thinking about what to include in my college papers, losing sleep over reports due the next day, scrambling to pull together an analysis I’d spent considerable time planning and yet not actually doing until it was practically due?
Psychology Today asked Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, “why do people procrastinate”? Dr. Ferrari identified 3 basic types of procrastinators:
- arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush
- avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability
- decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events
For me, procrastination is often about perfectionism. I didn’t clean the top of the fridge because, when I do, I also need to dust the tops of the cabinets, and if I do that, I need wipe clean the cabinet doors. While I’m at it, I should also organize the cabinets, declutter the drawers, clean the oven…all these things to do that then make me feel too overwhelmed or feel that I don’t have enough time to get all of that done.
So, I am learning to take smaller steps. I remind myself that it’s okay to clean JUST the top of the refrigerator. Another time, I can then dust the top of the cabinets. I can organize just one cabinet today.
I often give myself a time limit to do what I can. Perhaps I’ll give myself half an hour to sort and reply to email. I’ll work on the report due next week for 20 minutes a day (though I’m often thinking that new information will become available and I’ll have to start over anyway!). These time limits assist me in feeling less overwhelmed; “I’d clean the mirror in the bathroom but I only have 15 minutes”. These time limits also help me prioritize; I spend less time with my email, meaning I read and reply to the most immediate emails. I don’t wander off to read seven newsletters that, while interesting, aren’t a huge priority for me.
Different tactics work on different types of procrastinators. First find out what the pay off for procrastinating is for you, then decide how to make doing pay off more. Of course, I believe that a coach can be an invaluable ally in such discoveries.
{ 0 comments }