Procrastination is a commonly used word in many environments.
One definition is “the act of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so”.
It is something that a lot of people talk about struggling with. Or from. And every coach will have their own way of supporting anyone who wants to work on improving a habit that can be termed as procrastination. (I have, and if anyone does want to understand what that is then please do get in touch!)
I am a transformational coach, so my jam is helping people create and maintain change. In coaching terms, we sometimes call this creating a shift.
I also like thinking with the people that I am working with, and I frequently leave people with thinking tasks at the end of a session. So, if we were in a coaching session and you wanted to talk about the fact that you are struggling with procrastination, the conversation might go something like this.
OK, so I’d like you to think about the main thing you are procrastinating about.
How does the thought of it feel?
We’d then work through what words come up – typically these will be along the lines of “heavy, pressure, a weight, scary, fear”.
My next question would be something like “what would you like to have happen to that / those feeling(s)?
The answer is always for them to go away.
And then, how do you feel when it has gone away? Here, typically the answer is something like lighter, free, better, in control, not scared.
So, then we will sit and think for a while whilst those simple answers settle on us and then we work out what to do. (Set a time to do the thing, and then do the thing)
Procrastination is excess mental weight, that slows you down, and clogs you up. It’s an energy leak. It’s a waste of all your resources, including your most precious – your time.
If you thought about it in that way, might that be enough to create that slight mental shift you need to break your own habit, easily?
