Stop thinking and start doing

I usually send emails out on Sunday to my community and intended to last week. But it didn't work out. Why you may ask.? The only reason is I choose procrastination over doing the thing.

I knew I was going out of town last weekend for weeks ahead of time. We had a dog/house sitter, I had a sub for work, the kid had been accounted for, and I had created a schedule so I could complete all my business tasks before I left. And I completed all the tasks, except the email.

So what went wrong? I am usually pretty good at getting my shit done. But like all the best-laid plans, life happened. It was gloomy and rainy and I had multiple nights of little to no sleep. I found myself doing everything else except writing this email. I started a few house projects, watched Netflix, read, bathed the dog, did loads of laundry, and continuously pondered, with a foggy brain, what to write about.

The funny thing is, it wasn't the actual work I was avoiding, it was the thought of the work. Because when I sat down to write this email it took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. I know I had an hour and a half last week when this could have gotten done. Instead of just doing the thing, I probably spent at least 8 hours thinking about doing it. I was creating a huge amount of resistance to writing that took up way more energy than the actual task.

Procrastination is an interesting animal because not only are we aware that we are avoiding the task at hand, but we also know that doing so is not a great idea. Yet we do it anyway.

Procrastination happens for a multitude of reasons. Research shows that it is not a time management problem but rather an inability to manage negative moods around a certain task. When I read that it got me thinking. I realized how exhausted I was and I didn't feel like I could rely on my brain to write anything worth reading. So I avoided it, but it remained on my mind.

So how do we handle procrastination when it shows up in our lives?

Look at the urgency of the task at hand. If whatever you need to work on isn't urgent, set it aside and come back to it later. If it is urgent try to get a small amount of it done. Getting into action always helps. While I like to be consistent with when I send my email, the world will not end if it gets sent on a different day. When I finally let go of writing the email the ideas started to pour in. I had a rough draft of this email written in my head over the weekend.

Be compassionate to yourself. Most of us are pretty good at getting our shit done and our occasional procrastination won't affect the quality of our lives. There is often a lot of negative self-talk when we find ourselves procrastinating. You are not lazy and don't need to beat yourself up. Often it's a nice reminder that it always feels better when we just do the thing. Learn from your actions and move on.

Basically, do the thing or don't but stop wasting time thinking about it.