Acknowledge Your Procrastination and Identify Why You Do It

You may not know why you procrastinate, but you are aware if you are doing it often. You are probably reading this because you are tired of the mental and physical tolls it is taking on you. You may be tired of defending your habit to others and making up excuses for missing deadlines.

When not directly tied to mental health concerns, such as anxiety and ADHD, procrastination is just a really bad habit that can be easily broken by putting simple measures into place. When it’s a symptom of a mental health issue, it can still be broken but may take some additional work.

It’s Not Enough to Admit You Procrastinate

Admitting something is usually the beginning of healing, but with procrastination you also have to take steps to break the habit. In addition, for those who are chronic procrastinators, you will have to get to the root of the issue. Why are you always putting things off? The two steps are to admit you have a problem and then identify why you do it.

Getting to the Bottom of the Problem

Before I dive into how you can fix the problem of procrastination and share some practical steps with you throughout the rest of this challenge, let’s do some work to get to the root of the issue. If you used to read Eyes Straight Ahead or you currently read this blog or The Essential Creative, you know I am big on digging deep and getting to the true problem versus being superficial in how we approach things.

Let’s review three ways to get to the true heart of why you are procrastinating.

• Journal.
  • Brain dumps are a beautiful thing when you can just lay out what you are feeling and then go layer after layer deeper until you uncover that “A-ha” moment.
    • If you struggle with mental health issues such as bipolar disorder, depression, or anything that makes it unsafe to journal too deeply, don’t do this without hiring a therapist first.
  • Get creative and use scrapbooking material. Draw pictures. Whatever works for you to be able to take what is in your head that is causing you to stall and move it to the paper so you can dissect it.
    • As a note, DO NOT procrastinate on something you should be doing to do the journaling about why you are always procrastinating!

• Get an Accountability Partner.
  • Accountability partners are a Godsend. They can help you see around corners, identify your blind spots, and share new ideas with you. They can offer perspective that you may not have considered as well as call you out on your bad behaviors. Get someone you trust and will be vulnerable with. For accountability to work you both have to be honest with one another.

• Hire a Therapist, Counselor, or Coach.
  • Therapists, counselors, and coaches are trained in helping you identify the underlying reasons why you procrastinate. For some of you, it will be as simple as fear of failure that holding you back. For others, you may identify that it is related to a PTSD trigger you experience with specific tasks. Trained professionals make a big difference in helping you identify why you procrastinate. Again, find someone you will be completely open with.

The first step is to admit you have a problem. The second step is to identify why you have the problem. When you shine a light on something, it can no longer hide. Let’s pull out our spotlights and shine it bright on our desire to put things off for tomorrow so we can spend the next three weeks digging in to how we are going to break this terrible habit.

Challenge

Do one or more of the actions mentioned above so you can begin identifying WHY you are procrastinating so much.