We all know that for our brand to grow, we need to perform some tasks that push us outside of our comfort zone. You know you've got to do it, you need to do it, and yet you'll do anything other than what needs to be done. In 1937, Napoleon Hill published a seminal book, Think and Grow Rich, where he analysed the traits of over 500 millionaires and found they shared one single feature—decisiveness. In addition to making decisions confidently and quickly, they changed them slowly, giving their original decision a chance to take root. When making clinical decisions, you will act decisively – your decision muscle will have been exercised repeatedly, and the more you use it, the more instinctive and accurate your decision-making is. However, is the same true when you try something new?
What is procrastination?
Moore (2018) summarised procrastination as a normal reaction when we fear a threat to our sense of independence or worth and as a method to avoid difficult situations. We end up doing anything other than the critical task at hand. Procrastination isn't an illness or personality issue, though—it is an outdated survival instinct when a task is perceived as potentially consuming too much energy or fear of the unknown.
Around 100,000 years ago, our ancestors engaged in complex planning to survive. Impulsive decisions back then, such as throwing a spear at a mammoth without support, would have likely resulted in death. Conversely, taking time to plan and worry about the potentially adverse outcomes would likely result in survival. Today it's perceived as a failure to complete a task due to distraction, overwhelm or poor prioritisation issues, but it can be unlearned. It can also be the fear of someone critiquing our work and, therefore our self-worth, such as asking a colleague or friend to review our work. We all procrastinate to some degree, and some of those distraction tasks include:
- Social media
- Cleaning
- Panicking
- Watching TV
- Working on less important tasks instead
- Pre-crastination–‘getting things ready’ before actually starting.
Some procrastination isn't all bad though—sometimes it is an indirect resistance to authority and allows you control of your life and liberty, which in turn helps you survive and thrive. Fear of success can also protect against having a weight of expectation and therefore being judged, which may be what you want. However, have a clear separation between you and your work. When someone judges your work, they are not judging you. You are capable of great things, and don't allow a critique of a piece of work to define your outlook and hold you back. If the task is low-value, then procrastinating on it in favour of a higher-value task may be entirely appropriate.
The paradox of perfection
‘Don't wait. The time will never be right.’
-Napoleon Hill
Perfectionism is often seen as a positive trait but can also lead to procrastination. When we strive for perfection, we are often afraid of making mistakes. This fear can lead to us putting off tasks because we don't want to do them until they are perfect.
The pain of perfectionism can be seen in how we often feel guilty or ashamed when we don't meet our own standards. We may also feel like we are not good enough or a failure, making us feel stressed, anxious, and depressed.
The paradox of perfectionism is that it can actually prevent us from achieving our goals. When we focus on perfection, we often lose sight of what is really important. We may also be so afraid of making mistakes that we never take any risks. This can lead us to stagnate and never reach our full potential.
» Moore (2018) summarised procrastination as a normal reaction when we fear a threat to our sense of independence or worth and as a method to avoid difficult situations «
» Procrastination isn't an illness or personality issue, though – it is an outdated survival instinct when a task is perceived as potentially consuming too much energy or fear of the unknown «
If you are struggling with perfectionism, it is important to remember that you are not alone. Many people struggle with this issue. There are some things that you can do to overcome perfectionism, including:
- Accept that you are not perfect. No one is perfect, and that is alright. You do not need to be perfect to be successful. We are all perfectly imperfect people.
- Focus on progress, not perfection. Instead of focusing on making everything perfect, focus on making progress. Even if you make mistakes, you are still learning and growing.
- Be kind to yourself. When you make a mistake, don't beat yourself up. Everyone makes mistakes. Just learn from them and move on.
- Strive for excellence, not perfection. Perfectionism can be a curse to protect your self-worth and protect you from fear of failure.
The busy fool
The busy fool, known as active procrastination, falls into two types.
- Active procrastination: You were convincing yourself that you were very busy by ticking off lots of low-priority items and putting the big things off for another day.
- Active procrastination through others: Running around all day being dragged from pillar to post, solving everyone else's problems at the expense of your own tasks. This tends to be dealing with other people's emergencies that they try to make yours, leaving you with little meaningful work done.
To prevent falling into this trap, it is essential that you prioritise your to-do list before starting for the day and stick to it. At the end of the day, review what you were able to do and try to catch yourself out.
Another common procrastination trap is putting off tasks until later. This usually results in the task becoming bigger and worse—do not keep fooling yourself into thinking it will go away by itself.
Task-jumping, sadly, is another modern-day pandemic. It is easy to delude ourselves that we are good at ‘multi-tasking’, as we jump from one half-completed task to another; or, as we engage in learned behaviour, such as checking our smartphones or email every few minutes. To make matters worse, there is a setup cost of jumping from one task to another, resulting in both the time and quality of the completed task suffering.
Steps to manage procrastination
Many of us suffer from overwhelm—but don't be overly put off by it, as the challenge can help you push yourself outside your comfort zone. However, don't listen to too many opinions, say yes to every opportunity that comes your way, or overload yourself with too many choices. Make sure that you schedule breaks and family time in there too—they are just as important as any of your business decisions. Consider what you can delegate out as well.
There are few single major bad decisions out there—they consist of many smaller decisions, and there are great lessons to be learned from those decisions regardless of how they turn out. Make that small decision—in most cases you can reverse it if needed after you've learned more. The worst case you can do is not act. If you are struggling with a large decision, try the following:
- If possible, remove the permanence of the decision. A month or a year from now, many decisions won't matter, and in most cases you can reverse it anyway. However, take more caution during actual aesthetic practices.
- Diminish its importance. If it does not concern life or death, isolate the decision into a very small single action, which in turn will help you cut out the distractions too.
- Contextualise the decision. The consequences of some decisions are likely to be minor.
- Balance your expectations. If your expectations are unrealistic, you won't be able to live up to them. Break down those big goals into smaller, achievable single tasks.
- Take your art seriously, but not yourself. Be serious about work, but not yourself or how you approach life. Enjoy the moment and don't delay your happiness for a future that may never come.
- Figure it out as you go, not as before you start. This one is the single biggest lesson I have learned over the years. You are an infinitely creative, resourceful and dynamic individual—you won't have all the answers when you start, but you will find a way of getting it done and finding a perfect solution later.
» Figure it out as you go, not as before you start. This one is the single biggest lesson I have learned over the years «
Conclusion
Procrastination is a natural part of who you are. You can help manage it by understanding what tasks you use to procrastinate and breaking big decisions down into more manageable chunks. Visualise where you want to be, then act as an authentic person moving towards what you want to become.