We are now 3 months into the New Year and I would mind betting that you have already noticed yourself procrastinating on some aspect of your 2018 resolve.
It may be just a little thing here or there but the structure is the same – putting off to tomorrow what you could have, (or by your rules or decisions) should have done today.
Now, it’s pretty hard to find a person who does not procrastinate at all from time to time. ‘Things’ comes up, bright shiny objects take our attention or we just don’t have the urge to do something that we have committed to do. Avoiding emotionally unpleasant tasks and instead doing something that provides a temporary mood boost is often the preferred option.
The problem is that habitual procrastination seriously affects lives.
A typical example is the person (it may even be you) who, for a long time has been “meaning to start” a structured savings program but never gets around to it. “When the income reaches ‘this’ level or the expenses drop to ‘that’ level” are typical reasons for putting this activity off.
We may think that procrastination is all about poor time management or willpower and to some extent it is. But I think that a more impactful factor is how we relate to the act of procrastination after the event.
Psychologist Tim Pychyl, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada has co-authored a paper showing that students who forgave themselves for procrastinating on a previous exam were actually less likely to procrastinate on their next test.
He and others have also found that people prone to procrastination are, overall, less compassionate toward themselves. This often produces an identity of oneself as a procrastinator. This leads to a vicious cycle and increases the chance of more of the same.
The procrastination pattern that we observe in people’s in8model scores are where the numbers that they score are equal, or within 1 of each other. This puts the person in a bind on a given topic, subject or action as they can see all options and find it hard to chose only one. The other instance of ‘Round to it’ness’ is where a score is really low in one Quadrant and yet the task to be done requires that that Quadrant be engaged. Reluctance to engage in this instance stems from the opposing Quadrant being much more enticing than its lesser favoured counterpart.
So, this month simply notice when you are putting off those things that you know will get you to where you want to get. Be kind to yourself about this action, don’t label yourself with any judgment of your actions (or inaction), engage those less favoured part that you have shied away from in the past, revisit your 2018 resolve making sure that it fits with your values and enrol in our Fantastic Future Formula course to help take you to your desired outcomes.
Let’s ‘Get Around To It’ in a new unit of time.
