Procrastination ! Even the word is long…! Dragged out, lots of syllables…!

The Definition of Procrastination is:

The failure to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

Procrastination affects us all at different times and for different reasons. But the end result is that is sucks our energy and leaves us feeling listless. We know what we should be doing, but we do something else instead, or we do nothing instead, but at the back of our minds, we still know that we’re cheating ourselves…!

There’s 5 causes or personality types in Procrastination:

1.Perfectionist - Someone who has to have everything ‘perfect’ before starting the new thing, implementing their new idea or launching a new store, product or service.

2.Dreamer - Someone who lives in their big vision and doesn’t do too much about the little details.

3.Crisis Maker - Someone who likes to create drama in their lives or wait until the very last minute to do a certain task or who works well under pressure

4.Defy-er - Someone who doesn’t like to do things by the rules, a bit of a rogue agent

5.Over-doer - Someone who does things over and over again without actually taking action or implementing something – rather like an over-analyser or over planner.

Do you recognise yourself in there ? I’m definitely a number one, I’m the type that has to clean the desk and sharpen all the pencils before I can return a phone call ! Yes, feel free to shake your head, as it is mystifying to all around me too !

So why do we do it?

• Is it because we’re lazy?

• Is it because we aren’t sure what we should do to go forward?

• Is it because deep down, we’re not totally confident that we can accomplish the task?

• Is it because we don’t enjoy the task and there are other more fun things to do instead?

• Is it because it’s a “should” on our list, but not something that we actually want to do ?

The answer is of course a mixture of the above…

Sorry there’s no one stop panacea for procrastination, but if you look through your unfinished “to do list” you’ll be able to figure out what the blockages are for you ! (more about this on Wednesday )