the productive ways we procrastinate.
Procrastination can look productive. It takes many different forms and is often not as destructive a behaviour as people assume it is. It’s less about the behaviour and more about how it is done and how often. That’s what makes it so interesting.
Take research for example. Research is good. It helps us get ready and getting ready can be important. But researching past the point where you are ready to act moves from preparation to procrastination dressed up as preparation. Same with organising, learning, and making lists. I did this when I set up my own business. Research and thinking about what I wanted to do, taking courses, pretending I was side hustling it. The courses were important, until I noticed that I could’ve made a new career out of doing them. There were qualifications I needed and there were some that were nice to do. One of those is preparation, the other is procrastination. No prizes for spotting which is which.
Sometimes there is a right time for something. But when ‘ready’ isn’t defined or the right time never arrives, that’s most likely procrastination. I tried to transition out of my career without a plan or a timeline. It was just a thought that I believed I was working towards.
the real question.
I believe the more important question to answer is at what point does preparation become procrastination? I’ve stopped worrying about whether I’m procrastinating. Instead, I notice my behaviour, then stop to look at what’s going on. Usually, I need to create some end points and define where I’m trying to get to.
Procrastination gets in our way more than we would like. It is sneaky. It often disguises itself so we don’t realise it’s getting in our way. It loves to make the creative ways we avoid action look productive. And it is infuriating when it takes over even when we know, or expect, that putting something off will make things worse. It also often dismissed as laziness or bad time management. Looked at from this angle, it is no wonder it is a key reason why we put things off, even when we know what we need to do.
you know what you need to do.
Your decision is made, you are clear in your mind about what you need to do, and you are excited to see how it comes to life. The problem is that you’ve been thinking about it for months. And nothing has changed. Researching, planning, thinking, reading, learning; all this looks and feels productive. But you still aren’t making any progress.
This is why procrastination can be so difficult to spot. It can look like progress. I did this for years with my running. I read books and magazines, wrote training plans, tried different types of cross-training, signed up for races, joined the gym. Everything except run. And I didn’t do that very much. I was constantly planning, waiting for the perfect day, a 3-month training plan with nothing that could get in my way. Story after story, plan after plan.
One day, I started running without a plan. I just decided to run every day. Then I found I was learning more than I had in all the research I had done. The pre-learning wasn’t unhelpful, but I needed to figure out how it applied to me and how I responded to training. That took time, but I learned as I went. I was finally running and it was more valuable than anything else I’d done to ‘get ready’.
types of procrastination.
It is useful to understand more about what procrastination is and how it works. There is very little research or consensus on how procrastination can be typed, except for Joseph Ferrari. He identified three types of procrastination that have proven to be helpful and have been used in a range of studies.
type i: avoidance procrastination.
This is when you avoid doing something because it threatens how you’ll feel about yourself. You worry about failing or being judged. Avoidance procrastination can be difficult to identify because you might simply be delaying and telling yourself a convincing story. Sometimes it might even be true.
There is a difference between avoiding and delaying or waiting. Delaying isn’t necessarily procrastination. A delay where you decide to do something on Friday because you have the time on Friday that you need, is usually just planning. Waiting is when you can’t get something done until something else happens, or you’ve got something you need to help get it done.
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Procrastination is different. It is putting something off. You tell yourself you’ll do it today, then when today arrives, you decide to do it tomorrow, and this goes on day after day, week after week and nothing happens. The difference is what you intend to do and what you do.
In other words, delay versus never getting around to it. If I said I was going to write this article on Tuesday and then on Tuesday decided that Friday would be a better day, I can’t be sure if I’m delaying or employing avoidance procrastination. It becomes clear on Friday when I either get it written or delay again. Further delay starts to look like procrastination.
type ii: arousal procrastination.
You put something off until the deadline gets closer because you’ve told yourself that you work better under pressure. And yet, pressure doesn’t always produce a better performance, it often takes longer with more errors.
‘I work better under pressure’ is not evidence that procrastination works, but it can be an explanation. I often thought I work better under pressure, but when I completed the task, I was sure I would have produced a better result if I worked on it sooner. The important point is the amount of pressure you put yourself under. Is it helpful or is it working against you?
type iii: decision procrastination.
Have you made a decision? Committed to a choice? Is this the root of your delay? This is not avoidance through laziness. It is thinking it through without an endpoint. The thing you are putting off is undefined.
When you make a decision and commit to a choice, you will either move to avoidance or arousal procrastination or move forward and just get it done. Decision procrastination comes first but then can take a different shape. The decision, or commitment to a choice, is usually just the first step.
procrasti-learning.
It’s an unofficial ‘type’, but procrasti-learning is my favourite form of procrastination. I am an expert at it. It happens when you continually put something off by learning more about it instead. My procrasti-learning was disguised for a long time by telling myself I am a ‘lifelong learner’. This label enabled me to keep learning, because ‘that’s who I am’. Complete rubbish. But it is a common type of procrastination.
Procrasti-learning feels like motion but there is no output. It is driven by a belief that you don’t know enough and, by staying in the learning phase, you keep yourself safe from criticism, failure and real-world testing. It is an illusion.
By telling myself I’m a life-long learner, I need to learn everything I can about something before I do it. I completed my coaching qualification and trained as an NLP Practitioner, then had a list of others that had grabbed my attention. Luckily I heard about procrasti-learning and it stopped me in my tracks. I now have a list of courses and qualifications I want to do. I have them ranked and I’m clear on what each of them will give me and have a good sense of when they could be useful.
I realised I wasn’t building my confidence or getting ready. Yes, my qualification was important, but it was all I needed to get started. This is not the same as continuous professional development (CPD). They are different things.
The problem with procrasti-learning is that learning feels productive and responsible. Whereas action feels uncertain and creates vulnerability. Action is also the most effective to learn. As I discovered, the hard way.
how to move forward.
Telling yourself you are a procrastinator or convincing yourself you just need one more day or qualification is not helpful. Instead, ask yourself if you are avoiding a task. Consider what you think the outcome would, or could, be if you went ahead and did the task anyway. Does that reveal anything?
What would you do next if you didn’t have another day, didn’t need more information and couldn’t do more research? Try taking action and see what happens. It doesn’t have to be a big action or a grand gesture, something small that breaks you out of your stuck place is more than enough.
If you’re stuck between preparing and starting, book a free introductory call and let’s find the smallest next step.
I’m Fiona, a habit coach and the founder of The Habit Hacker. I work with people who know what they want but can’t make themselves do it. Together we build habits that are unique to you and your life. My 90-day programme, Brick by Brick, is built on my philosophy that personalised habits change lives. Find out more at thehabithacker.co.uk
