We kick this episode off with a very real-life moment: Janine opened the refrigerator right before recording and realized it was past time for the dreaded clean-out… again. (You know the one—mystery containers, missing storage bowls, and the hope that nothing has started to smell.)

That prompts a conversation about procrastination—why we do it, what’s actually happening underneath it, and how we can move through it with more compassion and way less drama.

We also share one universal strategy that helps no matter what: figure out what feels bad about the task… and then counteract that.

Time-Stamped Highlights

00:54 The refrigerator clean-out avoidance (and why we wait until it smells). “You wait until the pain of opening the refrigerator is greater than the perceived pain of cleaning it out.”

02:07 To clarify: we’re not “above” procrastination—we’ve procrastinated in every possible way

03:12 Janine’s procrastination trigger: fear of something being unpleasant (phone calls, hold music, hoops)

06:39 The core strategy: identify the bad feeling and counteract it

07:50 The 4 productivity blocks that lead to procrastination: enjoyment, reward, distractibility, confidence

08:33 Why you tend to procrastinate for the same reason most of the time (but it can vary)

16:09 Shannon’s procrastination tends to be distractibility + lack of confidence. She shares her late adulthood ADHD diagnosis and how it changed things for her

17:45 Bottom line: you procrastinate to avoid feeling bad—and choose to do something that feels better instead

What We Talk About

1. Why we wait until a task becomes unbearable (hello, refrigerator)
2. How procrastination is often our brain trying to dodge an unpleasant feeling (not laziness)
3. The four productivity blocks that lead to procrastination: Enjoyment, Reward, Distractibility, Confidence
4. Why we tend to procrastinate for the same reason most of the time (even though tasks can vary)
5. Why celebrating small wins can build momentum
6. How ADHD and distractibility can show up as trying to “set the scene perfectly” before starting

FAQ: Procrastination + the 4 Productivity Blocks

What are the 4 productivity blocks that cause procrastination?

There is a formula to productivity and procrastination. In this episode we talk about the four “productivity blocks” that tend to contribute to procrastination:

1. Enjoyment: You expect the task to be unpleasant (or boring), so you avoid it.
2. Reward: There’s not enough payoff to get you started.
3. Distractibility: Your attention keeps getting pulled to other tasks, thoughts, or inputs.
4. Confidence: You’re not sure how to do the task, or you don’t feel confident you can do it well.

While there are specific strategies for each block (take the quiz at shannonwilkinson.com to learn them), there's a big universal move: identify the bad feeling you’re avoiding—and counteract it (even just enough to start).

How do I stop procrastinating when a task feels unpleasant?

Start by asking: What feels bad about this task? Then counteract that feeling on purpose.

A few “good enough” ways to do that:

1. Add a little enjoyment (music, a funny podcast, a 10-minute challenge, doing it with someone)
2. Use rewards (small reward for starting, bigger reward for finishing—maybe one in the middle)
3. Reduce distractibility (write down competing thoughts, pick one thing, remove distractions, set a timer—even 5 minutes helps)
4. Build confidence (get information if you don’t know how; practice stepping into the feeling of confidence before you take action)

Is procrastination a sign of ADHD or distractibility?

Procrastination can show up for lots of reasons, and in this episode we’re careful not to treat it like a character flaw. One of the productivity blocks we talk about is distractibility, and Shannon shares how her ADHD diagnosis a couple of years ago changed her understanding of what was going on for her.

So yes—ADHD and distractibility can absolutely be part of the procrastination picture for some people. And even if ADHD isn’t part of your story, the same core strategy still applies: figure out the bad feeling and counteract it, then start with a tiny first step.

Listener Action

Pick one thing we’ve been putting off and ask:

1. What bad feeling are we trying to avoid? (Boredom? Discomfort? Fear of messing it up? Overwhelm?)
2. Which productivity block is showing up—enjoyment, reward, distractibility, or confidence?
3. What would counteract that feeling—just enough to help us start?

Then set a timer for 5 minutes and do the smallest possible first step.

Resources / Links

• Shannon’s procrastination quiz (and workbook) - Take Shannon's two-minute procrastination quiz to find out your productivity block is!
• YouTube - Click here to watch the episode!

Connect With Us

We’d love to hear from you: How do you procrastinate? Where do you get stuck when you’re putting things off?

• Leave us a voicemail: 413-424-GTGE (4843)
• Comment on social media: @gettingtogoodenough on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube
• Email: gettingtogoodenough@gmail.com

Want More Like This?

1. Episode 12: Procrastination — The original breakdown of the productivity blocks/reasons we procrastinate + strategies to move through them.
2. Episode 36: Feeling Satisfied — A perfect companion for the “good enough” mindset that reduces perfectionism paralysis and helps you move forward without needing it to be flawless.
3. Episode 67: Dealing with Distraction — Directly supports the focus/distractibility side of procrastination with practical strategies (timers, closing open loops, minimizing distractions).

Bottom Line

Procrastination isn’t a moral failing—it’s information. When you can name what feels bad about a task and identify the productivity block underneath it (enjoyment, reward, distractibility, or confidence), it gets a whole lot easier to take the next step. Be sure and check out the quiz at shannonwilkinson.com to get more detailed strategies for your particular brand of procrastination.

Hey, there. Welcome to Getting to Good Enough. I'm Shannon Wilkinson.

And I'm Janine Adams. We're here for practical and fun conversations about living with more ease and way less stress.

Yep. We're all about embracing progress over perfection. So grab a tasty beverage and let's get started. Hey, Janine.

Hey, Shannon. How you doing?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm great. I was just thinking that it's so fun to get to see you with that little greeting. I mean, we said this.

We've said those words hundreds of times, but before, it was on the phone or the Internet with no video.

Right.

And now I get to see you smile. It's so nice.

I know. It's really nice.

I was getting water for my Getting to Good enough Water cloths.

Nice.

And we have a picture inside the refrigerator. So I have to stand there, you know, filling my glass, and I was looking at all the disgusting things inside.

Of my refrigerator and thinking, we really.

Need to clean out this refrigerator. I mean, like, we have virtually no glass food storage bowls left in the cupboard because they're all in the refrigerator.

They're all in the fridge.

Yeah. I've been saying. We've both been saying this for days, if not weeks. Like, why don't we just do it?

I think usually we wait until it smells so bad we have a not just visual, but olfactory reminder we need to do it.

You wait until the pain of opening the refrigerator is greater than the pain, the perceived pain of cleaning it out. Right.

Or until we starve to death because all our food is inaccessible, Whichever comes first. So. So I. I led me. I was thinking I need to talk to Shannon about procrastination, because I feel like you're the. The expert on procrastination.

You can usually help me get going where I need to go. Yeah.

And I feel like I need to clarify that I am the expert at procrastination. On procrastination, and perhaps even at procrastination.

Which is maybe the ex procrastinator.

But I am. I mean, let's be honest here.

Everybody procrastinates.

Everyone procrastinates.

And I think perhaps part of the reason why I became really good at helping people move through procrastination is because I was such a procrastinator myself.

Just.

To, you know, put it all out there. Right. It's not one of those things where, like, I never procrastinate. So I can tell you how not to procrastinate. It's like, oh, no.

Right.

I Procrastinated in every possible way. So let's see how you're procrastinating. Because there are different reasons and sort of ways of procrastinating that, you know, people employ.

Right. Yeah. You helped me discover that the thing. The. My procrastination tends to be due to a fear of something being unpleasant. It's very strong.

I don't like to do things that are unpleasant. And sometimes I feel like if I make that call, they might.

To the financial institution, they might tell me something I want to hear, or they might make me jump through hoops, or they might just keep me on hold and make me unhappy for that.

Right.

It's probably one of the reasons I hate the phone gentlemen. I hate making phone calls. But anyway, that. For me, that was very powerful to learn that because it's really.

When you're gripped in it, it feels really powerful and strong. But in fact, when I realized it's just I'm afraid of something unpleasant. Well, I know I can.

Between my husband and me, we can get that refrigerator cleaned out in probably 10 minutes, and I can.

Right.

Actually, isn't that unpleasant if we do it together?

Yeah. Well. And, you know, so there's sort of two things at play here.

There's sort of the rational part of it, and then there's the less rational, sort of reactive part of it where, you know, your brain goes a little bit into survival mode of, like, you think it's gonna be so unpleasant for whatever reason, it's gonna take too long, it's gonna smell bad, it's gonna look gross, you know, whatever, that you don't want to do it. And so, you know, you choose to do something else that brings you enjoyment or that is at least not unpleasant if not pleasant.

Right.

Yeah. And so, you know, sort of one way to approach that is to figure out, is there a way that you can make it pleasant?

So, you know, could it be that you listen to something entertaining while you do it?

Or, you know, maybe you play your favorite music while you do it, or, you know, you enjoy a challenge, can you challenge yourself to do it in 10 minutes? Or, you know, whatever? Like, how can you make it more appealing to do or to get done?

Right, Right. And I will just say that we over, you know, we've been married a long time, and so over the years, we've made it more. Less unpleasant by.

We have defined roles in the process, and then we get a good laugh over the. Trying to guess what is in the containers. Is it meat? Is it cake? I don't know.

So we laugh a lot while we're doing it rather than like being mad at ourselves or each other over it. Right. Which. What can happen in those situations? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, so, you know, when you think about cleaning out the refrigerator, what happens if you think about laughing about it? Yeah.

Does that make it easier to do? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's too bad I'm podcasting. I'd get in there right now.

Well, you know, we can cut and come back.

Not necessary.

But. So that's. So that's really the trick of overcoming procrastination is figuring out what the bad feeling is about and counteracting that.

So, you know, whatever you're procrastinating on, you know, it's that or, you know, you have to send in a form to your bank and it's like, you know, you just keep putting it off. But when you think about it, like, what is it about that that feels bad and like, you know, I don't. I'll get it wrong. So how can you counteract that?

Well, I want to get it right. So perhaps I can make a call. Perhaps I can look at some FAQs online.

I, you know, there are ways to figure out how to get it right so that I don't make a mistake and waste my time.

So I feel like I remember that you identified four different types of procrastinators, if that's the right way to put it. What were those?

So they're enjoyment, like what we were just talking about with you. Whether or not you're going to enjoy the task. Reward, whether or not. Or how quickly you'll get rewarded for starting or completing the task.

Distractibility, which is more about.

It's hard to get started because you have a lot of different things vying for your attention and then confidence, whether or not you believe you can be successful at completing the task.

Oh, interesting. And so are people sort of wired differently and so they have a tendency toward one of those. Or maybe it depends on the task. Like the type of task.

Yeah, People generally procrastinate for the same reason on most things, but different tasks can. Or different situations can cause you to procrastinate for a different reason. And there is a quiz on my website on shannon wilkinson.com.

it's very short, two minutes. And it tell. It helps you understand your primary reason for procrastination.

Nice.

So there's a. There's a workbook that you get that helps you overcome your particular type of procrastination.

Nice. And can all the. So you have strategies for all the. For all four types.

Right, right. But the, but the sort of. The overriding strategy, you don't have to know your type. It can be really helpful.

I know it was really eye opening for you when you discovered that.

Yeah.

Think that had ever really occurred to you?

So it can be definitely useful to take the quiz and understand more about why you tend to procrastinate and then get a strategy for that particular type of procrastination.

But the overriding thing is what we were talking about earlier is on a specific task, what makes you feel bad when you think about the task and then what counteracts that. So, like, you don't want to clean the refrigerator because you think it's going to suck. Well, how can you make it not suck?

Well, you can think about laughing because you always laugh when you do it right. So that's like the easiest thing. And then you can add these external things in that can make it more enjoyable.

You know, listening to music, listening to a funny podcast, you know, whatever. Having a story prepared to tell, talk to your husband about, you know, whatever it is that can make it more enjoyable.

Right, yeah. And that works for all. That's a universal strategy, is to think about what's stopping what.

What's stopping you and what you can do about it, essentially.

Well, I was just going to go quickly through the other one. So, like, with reward, how can you reward yourself for doing it? You know, maybe a little reward for starting and a bigger reward for finishing.

And it doesn't need to be a big thing. It just needs to feel like a little bit of a treat, which could be as simple as sitting down for five minutes and putting your feet up.

Right. And you could have. Depending on how big the task is, you could have a reward in the middle too, right? Well, for progress.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Distractibility is about managing all the things vying for your attention.

So you know that the easiest way to counteract that is to get all those things out of your head so you're not thinking about them. And, you know, write down a list and then pick the one thing that you're going to do and set a timer is really helpful.

So, you know, even if it's only five minutes, but to just spend five minutes on that task alone without letting something else distract you can be really helpful. And then the fourth one, confidence, is really about whether or not you feel like you can do it.

You know, like I talked about with the example of needing to send a form into the bank, like, so that can be. Confidence can be two parts. It can be that you don't actually know how to do it, so you need to get information on how to do it.

And it can also be that you just don't feel confident. And that can be as simple as, like we talked in a recent episode of feeling the feeling of confidence.

Because there are things that you feel confident about and feeling what it feels like when you are confident and then moving forward from that point.

Yeah, from that feeling. Taking action. Right. As we discussed before. Oh, that's so interesting. It may be because of the insights gained from learning about my.

Why I procrastinate, but I feel like. And that was a long time ago, right, That I took that quiz. An insolent blur. But 10, 15 years ago. Yeah, probably 10 years ago. Yeah.

I feel like I procrastinate so much less than I used to. And like, it's. There's. Used to be. Well, when I was a writer, I was always.

I was always had a deadline and I was always procrastinating until the deadline was very soon. But now that I don't have that many things I have to do by a certain date anymore, just the way my career is shaken out, um, I'm actually.

I just do stuff in it. And that feels really good. I mean, it's. I feel like I'm where I would like to be, except for certain things that come up.

So it's nice to have some strategies for dealing with those. And I don't know, when I was younger, boy, I really procrastinated a lot.

Right.

Well, I wonder if part of that is that your sort of your theme over the last at least year or two has been to do more of things you want to do and less of things you don't want to do, which is all about enjoyment.

That's right. And so I've sort of, by looking at life through the filter of those, that theme of have fewer things on my task list that I don't want to do.

That's what you're saying, right? Oh, I love that. Yeah. And so there's not that much that is an enjoyable how lucky am I? I mean, that's amazing. I mean, that's great.

Well, and I think the other thing too is that you've sort of rewired your brain to enjoy having things done. So you may not enjoy the doing of certain things.

Like you've talked about how you don't particularly enjoy the payroll aspect of your business, but you enjoy having it done. You enjoy having it done on Time you enjoy not having to worry about it.

Like, so you can bring that feeling of enjoyment in sort of from different angles that allow you to get it done more easily than if you were coming at it from a place of, I don't like this, I don't want to do it, blah, blah, blah.

Right. Yeah, that's true. And I'm always. I'm big on taking the. The wins. Right. So I applaud for any little tiny achievement which makes my husband laugh.

Like if I can't think of a good example, but, you know, throwing a piece, a piece of paper into a trash can, if I make it, I act like I just ran a marathon. But anyway, I like taking the little wins. That gives me a little bit.

Well, I think that's worth another episode because that's huge and that can really propel you forward. But I just feel like you have done such a good job of finding the enjoyment and celebrating like that is enjoyable.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. I do feel really, really fortunate that way. Without a doubt. Yeah. So now we know that enjoyment is my motivator.

What causes you to procrastinate?

Depending on the day and the. I guess the thing I'm procrastinating on, it goes between distractibility and confidence.

Interesting.

Yeah.

I have been diagnosed with ADHD in my 50s, which was life changing to get that diagnosis, and it sort of made a. I don't know, it made a lot of things in my entire life make a whole lot more sense once I started understanding what ADHD really is and how it impacts your life. But I have a real problem, especially if I'm not taking my medication, with getting distracted. And so that's a big procrastination thing.

Or it shows up as I, I want to set the scene perfectly so that I am ready to get started. I have everything I, you know, and then that's impossible because everything is vying for my attention. And then confidence is.

The other one is like, I don't like to do things I'm not good at. And so if I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to do this in the way I want to do it or think it needs to be done, it's hard for me to get started.

So.

Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah. Very interesting. Well, a little insight into you, Shannon.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, the, the bottom line about procrastination is that there's some reason that you feel bad when you think about doing this thing.

And so instead of doing it, you do something that either makes you feel good or at least doesn't make you feel bad.

And so once you sort of understand that's what's going on and can figure out ways to feel good about this task that needs to get done, then the easier it is to move forward with it.

Yeah. Well, that's great. Well, maybe this will help folks who are having issues with procrastination.

Yeah, we can hope. Don't, don't put off checking out the quiz.

You're so clever. No, truly though, that quiz is really helpful.

And it's just, you know, there's there, it's not that trying to sell you anything. It really is trying to be a resource for people. So we would love to hear from you, our listeners. How do you procrastinate?

Where do you get stuck when you're putting things off? You can let us know on instagram, Facebook or YouTube @gettingtogood enough. You can send us an email at gettingtogoodenoughmail.com.

And Janine Adams in St. Louis, Missouri.

And we hope that Good Enough is getting easier for you. Thanks for joining us on Getting to Good Enough. We hope you heard something that makes your life just a little bit easier.

If you did, leave us a review or share this with someone who's looking for their own version of Good Enough.

Thanks for listening. See you soon.

God, I had such a good point to make. Totally gone.