Putting Things Off OR The Broken Record of Procrastination

We all have those mundane, boring or overwhelming tasks we just don’t want to do.

You know! The less-interesting, less-fun to-do’s necessary for keeping daily life running smoothly. As a turntablerule, many of us put them off until the very final hour, when the thought of the task somehow becomes worse than the task itself.

Maybe, it’s folding laundry. Maybe, it’s taking a work project from point A to point B. And, maybe, it’s a combination of big and little tasks that leave us tossing and turning at night, creating an avalanche of worry. We become expert excuse makers, justifying the procrastination, and then resolving ourselves to a predictable pattern ending in disappointment.

It’s like we become old school turntables, blasting broken records of self-depreciation, skipping again and again over the same scratched spot. And like a turntable, it goes round and round until you lift the needle for a temporary fix, or throw the record away for good.

There has been a lot of research about how, when and why people procrastinate, and equally as many self-help books offering solutions to being stuck. I’m sure they all offer something of use, but like any brain retraining process, it has to start with a deep desire from within.

So, what if we flipped the record over to side B? What if we acknowledged one or two things we’d rather not do (instead of beating ourselves up), and applauded ourselves when they got done?

What if we stopped thinking about laundry as a dreaded chore and, instead, imagined how nice our clean crisp sheets feel? What if we looked past the work that goes into an important project and focused on the success and rewards of being well prepared?

I’m not saying it’s easy to retrain the brain to make new patterns. But, it can be done!

Ask yourself what broken record sings your procrastination song? What’s your personal dirty laundry, and what will you do to applaud yourself when it’s finally flapping in the breeze?

Interested in retraining your brain? Give me a call. I’m always here to help.

Love, Deb