Procrastination is often seen as this terrible thing that needs fixing... but what if it isn't...

In this episode I explore the alternative, where we view procrastination as a message vs a "bad thing" we need to fix!

Episode Link: https://simplicityspecialist.captivate.fm/episode/procrastination-is-a-message

Share with Others: Listen to Simplicity Specialist Podcast with Jonathan Stewart

Want More of Me in Your Ear?

If you're enjoying this conversation, you can find me elsewhere!

Let's Email: I send weekly emails that talk more about the topics from the podcast, as well as building a business that fits you.

See What I'm Up To: See what I'm up to on various platforms!

The PKM Podcast: Where my co-host and I go a little deeper on psychology, learning, and discussing our opinions on the Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) & productivity space.

Simplicity Hub: Get access to free and paid resources to help you bring more simplicity in bitesized pieces.

A Note On Transcriptions - In the interest of simplicity, I'm using Descript* to make podcast publishing as easy as possible. This means that sometimes the transcript won't match what I'm saying and sometimes it'll be hilariously different (tag me on Twitter telling me the funniest transcription you've found).

Procrastination is one of those things that we're

told we need to overcome to fix.

And to change it's viewed.

As a sign that you're doing something wrong, you just need to be more

organized, productive, better.

etcetera etcetera.

But this might not be entirely true, at least in my experience!

For ease of understanding and so we're all on the same page.

My definition of procrastination is not taking action on something

I know I need or want to do.

Now delightful productivity, advice and habit formation experts say, if you want

to do something enough, you'll do it.

And if you don't do it, you're just not trying hard enough

or you don't want it or...

You've heard it all before.

Now, although I kind of get what this person is trying to say, and

sometimes it might be true for the vast majority of people who are listening

to this podcast, it never really fits.

In reality, I've had a lot of things I needed to do and even wanted to do.

And yet I still couldn't and no amount of sheer willpower will get me to do

the things that I'm procrastinating on!

If I could, well I wouldn't be making this episode and we'd all

be hyper-productive machines.

Oh, how exciting!!!

Now all of the work I do with my clients and in my programs and courses

is based around starting from you.

The individual, because we all work slightly differently and it's

important to trust ourselves when it comes to things about ourselves.

And in this particular case, whenever I am noticing procrastination and

I don't notice it all the time, I tend to ask the question why!

You see, I don't view procrastination as a quote unquote failure on

my part or something that I just need to grow out of or fix with

a deliciously complicated system designed by a hyper nerd like myself.

Although I have in the past, tried to build one, which guess what

was a form of procrastination!

No, I treat procrastination like a road sign...

it's mundane, boring, sometimes has a bit of graffiti all over it, obscuring

the direction, but it is a sign!

Procrastination is trying to tell you that something isn't quite working or

is stopping you from moving forward?

Now for me, it falls into three main camps.

One fear of getting it wrong.

aka, perfectionism.

Overwhelm.

This can be not sure where to even begin or something else entirely or finally.

And this is the fun one.

It's not drawing my attention.

I'm bored!

Now a sign isn't a solution it's pointing me somewhere.

I can then make a decision from there.

And that's what it is.

Now, I often know which one of these three it is.

I don't often like it, but it is one of those three above.

If I'm not sure, which can happen sometimes, I default to overwhelm

because if I can't figure out what's wrong, it's because I'm already

freaking overwhelmed to think about how my emotions are right now.

Thank you very much.

Once I have the information from the sign.

I thank it, sometimes swear at it and take steps to move forward

And sometimes that actually means just stopping and not continuing and putting

it somewhere so that when I'm less overwhelmed I'm able to overcome the

perfectionism moments that I am having.

I can return later!

We are bombarded by hundreds and thousands of pieces of productivity

and business advice every day.

And that often means we take in advice that doesn't really fit us.

Similar to the procrastination is bad.

Just get on with it.

Sometimes things that procrastination or just signs that are designed to

actually help and tell us something, not hinder us, no matter how annoying

it really can feel sometimes.

Instead of starting from common cookie cutter advice that doesn't really take

in any of the nuances of how you work.

Start from you.

I don't want to go it alone.

Reach out to me at simplicity.

Dash specialist.com.