Finding the underlying issues that fuel procrastination is one of the steps that will lead to changing this dis-empowering habit.
If you procrastinate it is possible that you’ve asked yourself why you procrastinate when it ends up causing stress, overwhelm and feeling bad.
There are a number of reasons people procrastinate and they fall into a few different categories.
You can begin to uncover the underlying reasons by looking at the things you do when you are procrastinating. For example, some people will think about the task at hand, and feel like they need to eat. Other people will feel tired or like energy is draining out of them. Some will not be able to sleep as the mind races with lots of “have to’s”. Although eating or needing to rest doesn’t move us in the direction of getting the task done, it does provide a certain feeling of comfort. Even if later you regret using that activity to postpone what you “want” to get done.
Both sleeping and eating when stressed fall under the category of comfort procrastination. Sleeping does provide comfort and. eating of course, is another way we comfort ourselves.
There are many other things people do when they procrastinate, but let’s look at the “need for comfort” procrastination, that is gotten by eating and sleeping.
Step 1: Is to change what isn’t working.
The following questions will put you in touch with some underlying issues. Answering the questions will give you with some other ways to provide comfort, that work better than procrastination.
Question 1: What would you need to provide comfort that would work better than what you have been doing?
Possible solutions: (Add your own solutions as you think about this)
a. Remember a time in the past when you accomplished a similar task.
b. Reassure yourself that you’ll get the task done.
Question 2: Is there information that is needed so you can feel more comfortable tackling the task?
a. Ask someone for help.
b. Google it. It is amazing how much can be found on Google.
c. Do have too much information? Do you need to a way to break the information down so you can start?
Question 3: Is your goal too big? If you feel overwhelmed it’s probably too big,
a. Start by breaking the goal down in the smallest, the tiny, tiniest, pieces that you can do.
b. Then pick one tiny thing, and do it, no matter how small, it moves you in the direction of your goal.
Step 2: Look for the underlying emotions that creates the need for procrastination. Fear is one of those emotions. I just worked with a client who came up with two fears that were underlying his procrastination. The first was feeling of not deserving to be successful, and the second was the belief that he could ever measure up. In his case we can see why he might rather do anything else but the task on hand. The underlying issues were fueling his moving away from even beginning the project. It wasn’t about the task at hand it was old beliefs that needed to be re-programmed.
To begin to uncover “unconscious” beliefs and emotions at the root of procrastination, do the following:
Step 3: Think about a time when you procrastinated: What was going through your mind, just before you procrastinated? What did you picture happening? What feelings were you having? What were you saying to yourself?
This simple step will begin to help you to uncover the underlying roots of where procrastination comes from. Most procrastination is a learned response to stress, when you uncover the programs it is possible to change them.