Is your procrastination strategic or avoidance?
In a client meeting earlier this week, we were talking about priorities and which meetings made sense to defer based on more pressing deadlines. One of the leaders shared an interesting perspective when we identified a specific meeting to skip… they said, “unless you’re procrastinating on purpose,” and shared that they sometimes do this themselves.
It got me thinking about this topic. When is my procrastination strategic so I have more time to think about a solution vs. I’m avoiding doing the work/making the decision?
What I realized is that I do both of them...
Procrastinating = avoidance. It’s not work I enjoy doing, I’m worried about the outcome once I decide, I don’t recognize that it’s a priority, or I just don’t feel like doing it (committing to my strength workouts for instance)
Procrastinating = ideation and creativity. I have some good ideas, but I’m not sure they’re fully baked yet, or I don’t have a great idea yet on where to start. (preparing my blog posts for instance).
It’s not procrastinating (based on my definition) if you’re making a conscious choice that other activities are higher priorities. That’s called effectively leading yourself.
➡️ Procrastination is good for you if it’s helping you get to a better outcome.
➡️ Procrastination is bad for you if it’s preventing reaching an outcome.
Some questions for reflection:
🤔 How intentional are you in your procrastination choices?
🤔 Do you notice that you’re doing it? What happens when you notice?
🤔 Think about your past week. When did you find yourself procrastinating? Would you say it was helpful to the success of your week or a hindrance to declaring success (because you either didn’t get it done or had to cram it in because you ran out of time)?
If procrastination is serving you, keep doing it intentionally.
If it’s not serving you, start challenging yourself to take the action or recognize you don’t want to do it and find a way to move it off your plate.
If you need support as you work on getting procrastinating habits out of your way, let’s talk.
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